A-10 Tourney: St. Joe's - GW LIVE

(3) George Washington 58, (6) St. Joe's 48 FINAL

It's down to three. The A-10 half of the Philadelphia teams -- La Salle, Temple and now St. Joe's are unofficially out of the NCAA Tournament. Penn and most likely Villanova are in, while Drexel gets to sweat it out on Selection Sunday.

The Hawks just couldn't hit anything down the stretch. No fault can go to Nivins, who got to the line with amazing regularity, but the three pointers that had to go in were all bricks.

(3) George Washington 57, (6) St. Joe's 48 0:11.6

Govens, like most players attempting three free throws late in the game, misses the first, but makes the next two after getting fouled on a three. GW is winning the FT battle, also like most teams leading late in games do.

Some fans chant "the Hawk will never die."

(3) George Washington 56, (6) St. Joe's 46 0:44 2nd Half

St. Joe's will have to hope it can win it by fouling, and GW is now in the double bonus.
Nivins misses a free throw and GW is in control.

(3) George Washington 52, (6) St. Joe's 43 1:05 2nd Half

Williamson gets a steal, but loses it himself, and the Colonials score the transition layup.

(3) George Washington 50, (6) St. Joe's 43 1:58 2nd Half

Nivins makes two, but the Hawks need a stop real bad.
They get one, but turn it over themselves.

Martelli's starting the offense-defense subs with Calathes and Williamson, respectively.

A Govens three rims out. Ferguson finally scores, off of his own offensive board.

(3) George Washington 48, (6) St. Joe's 39 3:46 2nd Half

Rice gets back into the scoring with a mid-range jumper, followed by a tough layup.
Two free throw misses in four hurt for St. Joe's.

It's all man-to-man now, as finally the Hawks get a stop.

On the 3-on-2 break Rivera hits Nivins with a sweet behind-the-back pass, and the big man gets fouled, as his shot rolls out.

(3) George Washington 43, (6) St. Joe's 37 7:26 2nd Half

Travis King's layup makes the lead double-digits, as Carter's pass just slips out of his hands. Calathes' pass goes awry, and now Diggs banks one in in the lane. Gw's trapping is creating some bad giveaways.

How do you stop a good halfcourt defense? Williamson takes a pass in transition for an and-1 layup, and then Rivera pushes the ball to draw another foul.
Rivera misses the second, but an offensive rebound and a Nivins deuce and all of a sudden it's back to six.

Ferguson still hasn't scored for the Hawks.

(3) George Washington 37, (6) St. Joe's 31 11:46 2nd Half

DeMayo calls a reach-in on Nivins that looked clean. DeMayo was the furthest away official, but his superior abilities must make up for it.
A fan taunts "Joey blank-in DeMayo", but his assistant makes the reach-in call that upsets the fans.

(3) George Washington 34, (6) St. Joe's 31 15:48 2nd Half

Calathes gets the half started off right with a three and a floater.
A block on one end and a drawn foul on the other and Ferguson and Nivins are starting to play a lot bigger.

Govens hits a three in front of the St. Joe's bench, and coach Phil Martelli calmly pumps his fist.
As you can no doubt tell from the scorelines, the Hawks are on a 10-1 run.

(3) George Washington 33, (6) St. Joe's 21 HALFTIME

A dissappointing last few minutes for St. Joe's. The Colonials' opportunistic perimeter defense created 10 turnovers, and the inside shut down a usually-dominant Hawks frontcourt. Rice and Diggs lead the Colonials with 10 and 11 points, respectively, each on 4-for-7 shooting. The Hawks have three assists.

(3) George Washington 31, (6) St. Joe's 21 1:41 1st Half

The crowd is getting a lot quieter, though a drunk fan still tries to clap along with the cheerleaders (though he's a half-second late).

Going for a board Elliott lands awkwardly on his ankle. Some good news for them though, as Koundija is back in for the newly-injured player.

(3) George Washington 30, (6) St. Joe's 20 2:39 1st Half

Rice is tearin' it up, hitting another triple and dropping Diggs a dime in transition.

(3) George Washington 25, (6) St. Joe's 18 3:35 1st Half

Diggs throws one down to keep the lead. Ferguson with a great box-out. I sure miss that at the Palestra.
Ref Joe DeMayo enthusiastically points to Nivins way out of the paint as he committs a foul on an and-1.

Koundija is hurt for GW, looks like it could be a shoulder.

Diggs blocks Jawan Carter's layup. The inside is owned by GW.
A Rice three, and the lead's back to seven.

(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 15 7:20 1st Half

After two FTS, the Hawks come out in a 3-2 zone and get a stop, but then go right back to man, and Govens gets a steal and goes coast-to-coast.
As the crowd livens up, Rice tries to quiet it with a baseline dunk, but the 6-10 Calathes throws him off and he misses.

(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 11 9:29 1st Half

The Hawks are now getting it going. They finally force a turnover, and Govens hits a transition three.
Quickly the other way Diggs has an open layup, but Nivins comes out of nowhere for a nasty block.

A Nivins dunk on the other end and we have a ballgame.

(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 6 11:19 1st Half

The Hawks are having real trouble scoring inside against GW, which normally starts three guys 6-foor-8 or taller.
Rice and company are running all over the Hawks in transition as well.
Govens throws a terrible pass, and the Hawks give it up again.

There are a lot of fans here, mostly for the Hawks. No one showed up for the first three games, so it's nice to see a real crowd.

(3) George Washington 13, (6) St. Joe's 4 13:20 1st Half

D.J. Rivera hits a rainbow, but Elliott comes right back with a three

(3) George Washington 8, (6) St. Joe's 2 16:08 1st Half

Philly native Maurice Rice starts off the scoring for the Colonials. Along with Noel Wilmore, he's one of two local players on GW.
The Hawks start with all bricks, and a few transition baskets and it's 6-0 GW.

Starters:

St. Joe's:
G Garrett Williamson
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins

George Washington:
G Maurice Rice
G Carl Elliott
G Damian Hollis
F Dokun Akingbade
F Regis Koundija