Hawks hang tough, fall late to No. 1 Oregon

SPOKANE, Wash. - There were just 17 teams left in the NCAA Tournament as Saint Joseph's and Oregon played out the second half of their second-round game Sunday night at the Spokane Arena. The winner was going to get a West Regional date with Duke on Thursday in Anaheim. It was an opportunity.

It looked like a lost cause for the longest time for the Hawks. Nothing really was going right or according to plan. What you have to do then is stay in the moment until the moment becomes yours. That is precisely what St. Joe's did, hanging in a game they trailed forever and then taking a very late lead.

Oregon had the final push, making two very late threes, forcing a shot-clock violation ahead by two, making critical free throws and forcing a turnover when the Hawks had a chance to tie with 10 seconds left. It was everything an NCAA Tournament game should be. Mood swings, momentum changes, heroic plays, all but a good ending for the team from Philly, top-seeded Oregon winning, 69-64.

"I'm proud of the season. My emotion is more about my career being over," Isaiah Miles said. "You can forget about the games, but not the career. We accomplished so much and I'm just so proud."

The Hawks, who had been playing with such great offensive rhythm since the second half of the first game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, had none. Once they got the lead in that quarterfinal A-10 game against George Washington, they had been playing with the lead in wins over Dayton, VCU and Cincinnati. That was comfortable. This was not.

It was not a positive omen when two starters were on the bench with foul trouble almost immediately; leading scorer Miles got two in the first four minutes and Chekko Oliva got three in six minutes. The Hawks, among America's least foul-prone teams, had Oregon in the bonus after just 8 minutes and the double bonus after 15. Then, Aaron Brown, who was "the" offense early, got his third with 4 minutes left in the half.

After solving everybody's man-to-man recently, the Hawks (28-8) were having real trouble dissecting Oregon's zone, barely scoring a point a minute for the longest time, not a total shock without floor-spacer Miles on the court. This was not the free-flowing game that had seemed more than likely given the scoring prowess of the teams. And the Hawks were facing too many late shot clocks.

Excellent halfcourt defense against a high-powered offense was keeping them in the vicinity, even as Miles spent all but six first-half minutes on the bench.

It was a hoops miracle St. Joe's was down just 32-27 at the break. Miles and DeAndre' Bembry, who had been averaging a combined 36 points, had just two baskets and four points. They had two more turnovers (eight) than they had in Friday's win over Cincinnati. But the defense held Oregon to just 9-for-27 (33 percent) shooting and held their breaths as more than a few wide-open threes missed badly.

The second-half pace was more hectic, but both teams play that way so there was no particular edge for either side. It was just more wide-open and pleasing to the eye. Oregon stretched its lead to 45-35, putting the Hawks in the danger zone. Naturally, they reacted by scoring the next 10 points to get their first tie since 2-2, forcing Oregon to call timeout.

St. Joe's got its first lead of the night, 50-49, on a Lamarr Kimble three with 8:08 left in the game. The game pressure immediately switched to the No. 1 seed. Kimble hit two more shots, the Hawks' defense locked in and they had the ball and a 58-51 lead with barely 5 minutes left. But then they committed just their second turnover of the half and the momentum swung back to the Ducks, who scored the next seven points. That set up the final frantic minutes, Oregon answering the Hawks' twos with threes and making just enough winning plays to move on.

"All I know is we had to close a four-minute game out and we didn't,'' Shavar Newkirk said. "A tremendous season. Felt even better for our seniors who got to the tournament."

Oregon (30-6) was the best opponent St. Joe's had faced since losing to Villanova 3 1/2 months before. The Ducks had 22 top-100 wins and were 12-3 against the NCAA field. They had blocked a school-record 207 shots and had five more by halftime. Still, the Hawks, a 30-1 shot to win the Regional and their amazing 16-3 road/neutral record, were game enough, if not nearly as pretty as they had been most of the season.

Bembry, a junior, said he'll take some time to decide whether to give up his final year of eligibility to pursue a career in the NBA.

"I will talk with my parents,'' he said. "It will be something new to me. St. Joe's has been great."

This was St. Joe's 36th game of the season, tying the school record set in 2004-05 by a team that played for the A-10 and NIT titles. The wins are the second most in school history, behind just the 2003-04 team that finished 30-2.

"There's no finger-pointing in the locker room,'' said coach Phil Martelli. "They won 28 games. The eight losses are on me.

"They put a lot into this. They are going to take it hard. We came here to go to Anaheim and now we're going home."

This Hawks team did not have the talent of that Hawks team, but this group absolutely played beyond what anybody could have expected a season after winning just 13 games.

You always want one more game, but, in the end, you get what you get and you give what you give. This team got an A-10 championship and gave everybody who loves high-quality basketball a season to remember.