St. Joseph’s learned a lot from a 78-69 loss to VCU. Can the Hawks apply those lessons in a tough A-10?
The Hawks have stepped up in some big moments and fallen short in others. One key difference: senior Erik Reynolds II's performance. He had 12 points Friday night.
With every loss comes a lesson, and St. Joseph’s learned a lot from a 78-69 loss to VCU.
The main takeaway wasn’t that the Hawks (11-7, 2-3 Atlantic 10) aren’t tough, head men’s basketball coach Billy Lange said Friday night. Instead, they saw where they are — and where they need to be.
“We’re a tough team, but they’re the level of toughness that you have to be at if you want to be the champion of our conference,” Lange said of the Rams (14-4, 4-1). “We know now, being here, the delta that we have to have in every game, not just when we play those guys.”
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The Hawks also have some shooting issues to address moving forward. They went 8-of-36 from long range, while shooting 33.3% from the floor overall. While those numbers don’t paint a great picture, Lange said he’s more concerned with the math behind them.
“We have more points in the paint [then VCU]. We took 15 more shots. We only had six turnovers. Of course, our assists are going to be low because we didn’t make enough threes,” Lange said. “The math says we played pretty well. I thought that it just took us too long to figure out the toughness that we needed to do on pivots, on drives, getting our shoulders lower, moving for each other, coming off a screen better. When we did, we had good runs.”
Those runs confirmed what the Hawks have shown all season: During big moments, they can compete with the best of them. They did it against Texas Tech and Virginia Tech. They did it in the Big 5 Classic championship game and in the Villanova game that preceded.
A nearly packed Hagan Arena with a white out student section against the team predicted to finish atop the conference marked another big moment.
But like against Princeton and College of Charleston, the Hawks fell just short.
One difference between those wins and losses: senior Erik Reynolds II’s performance.
Reynolds finished with 12 points on Friday night. Against Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, and in the Big 5 Classic, he had at least 20 points. Against Princeton and Charleston, he finished in single digits.
But the 12-point finish is still a step in the right direction in Reynolds’ inconsistent season.
“When he gets going, our ceiling is pretty high, so he’s not going yet, but he will. He’s got to keep shooting,” Lange said. “If they’re good shots and he’s in rhythm, I want him confidently taking those shots like he has for three years. And I thought that he did that tonight.”
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While Lange expects Reynolds to get going on the Hawks’ upcoming road trip, sophomore Xzayvier Brown seems to be settling in after missing a few weeks earlier in the season because of injury. Brown finished with 22 points, five assists, and zero turnovers. He also put up seven boards, second to junior Rasheer Fleming’s 14 rebounds and 16 points.
Jack Clark paced the Rams with 18 points and seven rebounds. Max Shulga, the guard who committed to Villanova before opting to stay with VCU, had 14 points and nine rebounds.
Next, St. Joe’s will visit Davidson on Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN+). Lange believes the groundwork for success was laid during Friday’s contest.
“[Davidson’s] one of the hardest-playing programs in our conference, and so that battleground sharpened us out there tonight, and I’m excited to see how we respond,” Lange said.