Saint Joseph’s guard Chris Wilson

The Saint Joseph’s Hawks used a 11-0 run at the end of the first half to propel them to a dominating second half and a 74-55 win over American University on Wednesday at Michael J. Hagan Arena.
Junior guard Langston Galloway led four Hawks in double figures with 18 which included scoring his 1000th career point on a three-point basket early in the game. The Baton Rouge,LA native and team captain is the fiftieth Hawk to reach the plateau.

“That’s a special group of guys that played here at Saint Joe’s,” Galloway said of the 1000-point club. “It’s definitely special to be part of it.”
Carl Jones and C.J. Aiken each had 16 points for Saint Joseph’s while Chris Wilson had 15 and eight assists. Ronald Roberts had a game-high 11 rebounds for the Hawks who are now 4-1. For American, Stephen Lumpkins had 18 and seven boards. The Eagles, who are now 2-4, had three other players in double figures.

Following an Aiken jumper with 6:26 to go in the first half, the Hawks were up 21-18 but the Eagles would go on a 10-0 run as the Hawks wouldn’t score for over four minutes. In that span, they turned the ball over four times and Wilson missed a three pointer. Following a timeout there was an 180 degree turn in the game, the Eagles wouldn’t score for the rest of the half while Saint Joseph’s ended it by turning a seven-point deficit into a 32-28 lead. They accomplished that on threes by Galloway and Aiken, an exclamation point dunk by Aiken – that would give them back a lead they wouldn’t relinquish – and finally a three by Wilson.

“I said a lot of specific things,” Hawks head coach Phil Martelli when asked what was said during that timeout, “but none that you can write down.”

The second half was all Saint Joseph’s as they had just one turnover after having seven in the first half that lead to nine points for American. The Eagles didn’t hit from the field for the first three minutes of the second half and made just 25 percent of the shots in the stanza.

Notes – The Hawks were without starting forward Halil Kanacevic, who missed the game with a back injury…Next for Saint Joseph’s is a trip to Omaha, NE to take on 11th-ranked Creighton which features Doug McDermott, who is considered one of the top players in the country.

“He’s got all the stuff,” Martelli said of McDermott whose averaging 21 points per game.

E-mail Rock Hoffman at RDVSports@yahoo.com