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Hawks top Quakers to halt skid

St. Joseph's - which was the designated home team Saturday night at the Palestra, as it is every other year in this series against the host school - had lost four of five, including three straight, since losing leading scorer Shavar Newkirk for the season with a knee injury on Dec. 30.

St. Joseph's - which was the designated home team Saturday night at the Palestra, as it is every other year in this series against the host school - had lost four of five, including three straight, since losing leading scorer Shavar Newkirk for the season with a knee injury on Dec. 30.

Penn, wearing its blue uniforms as the visiting team, had also dropped three in a row, all in the Ivy League, after coming off a 4-2 December highlighted by a win at Central Florida.

One team was going to leave the best basketball venue in the free world (and it was a near-sellout) feeling at least a little better about itself.

The Hawks got 23 points from lead guard Lamarr Kimble, who's been having some turnover problems of late, and a career-best 19 from freshman Charlie Brown, to come away with a 78-71 win that kept them from dropping four in a row for the second time in three months.

"I always use the word win," said coach Phil Martelli. "The last thing I wrote on the board was, 'Chase that taste.'

"I say this in a relative way. To walk around the last two weeks without a win has been miserable. And I never made it easy on them. Injuries happen all over the country. That's our team. That has nothing to do with it. Things had to be corrected. And in a harsh way. It was a recurring theme.

"Nobody's feeling sorry for them. It's on all of us. It was like we'd kind of reached a plateau here."

Brown also had a career-high nine rebounds. Kimball had five assists and two turnovers, or seven fewer than he did in a five-point loss at Massachusetts three days earlier.

It was a four-point game with 21/2 minutes left. But the Quakers, whose last lead was 10-9, would never get closer than six (on three occasions) after that.

The last dozen points by the Hawks (9-9) came at the foul line, on 17 attempts. They went 31 for 43, 21 of 28 in the second half. They had only eight assists on 21 baskets, to go with just seven turnovers.

James Demery, who earlier missed 10 games with a stress fracture in his foot, had 15 points and six boards.

Penn (6-9) got 19 points from Matt Howard, who had 12 combined in his previous three. But he didn't score in the final 8 minutes, 16 seconds. Top scorer A.J. Brodeur finished with eight, six below his average, on nine shots.

St. Joseph's will travel to St. Bonaventure on Tuesday before getting surging La Salle on Hawk Hill on Saturday.

Penn will play the Explorers at 20th and Olney on Wednesday and then will be off until Feb. 3 at Harvard.

The Hawks were up 15 with five minutes to go in the first half, following a 10-0 run. The Quakers then scored 15 of the next 17 and were down four at the break.

"Now we have a 12-game season," Martelli said. "We're .500. That's an average team. The goal is to be better."

See you in Olean.