St. Joe’s lacks ‘maturity and discipline’ in loss to Atlantic 10-leading Dayton

Kobe Elvis hoisted a deep three-pointer instead of taking a shot-clock violation as the final seconds ticked off the clock Tuesday night at Hagan Arena. It might have been against the unspoken rules of the game, but it was a fitting ending to the proceedings, and a fitting way for Dayton to leave the building.

The No. 18 Flyers scored 60 — yes, sixty — second-half points and erased a four-point halftime deficit in beating St. Joseph’s, 94-79. It was the most points St. Joe’s has allowed in a half all season.

It was, indeed, a tale of two halves. Best of times for a while, worst of times for the rest. The Hawks led 15-5, then 21-10, then 23-12. A good crowd was given good reason to be into it. Everything that could go right was going right. The ball was moving with pace. The open threes were falling. On the other end, St. Joe’s was dominating Dayton big man DaRon Holmes II. But Dayton, helped in part by a five-point possession (as Hawks freshman Anthony Finkley was ejected for a flagrant two foul) never went away. The Flyers cut the deficit to four at halftime and then steamrolled St. Joe’s to start the second half.

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St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange doesn’t think in litmus-test terms, but this was one of those games. St. Joe’s, which started its season 10-3 in the nonconference slate before limping out of the gate in Atlantic 10 play, likely doesn’t have a path to the NCAA Tournament unless it gets by Dayton in the A-10 Tournament next month. Sure, the Flyers could get upset along the way and St. Joe’s could get lucky and avoid seeing them, but good luck hoping for that.

Plus, the Hawks are now 15-8 and 5-5 in the A-10. There’s a long way to go before planning a net-cutting party anyway.

Dayton, which has lost just three times this season, scored 18 of the first 21 points in the second half. The 18-3 run was capped by a Koby Brea three with a hand in his face. Brea, the nation’s leader in three-point percentage, went 3-for-5 from deep, and the Flyers shot 12-for-22 on the night from beyond the arc (including 8 of 12 in the second half).

The Hawks started the second half with a shooting slump. Some of the shots were good looks. Lange said there were a few things related to the poor shooting he was unhappy about afterward.

“The weight of not making a shot is not always indicative of the quality of play,” he said. “The ball was moving great in the first half. That was probably the best offensive first half we’ve had all year. We attacked their zone. Their zone has been a pain in the butt to everybody they’ve played against. We were terrific against it.”

What changed?

“When you start 4-for-18 in the second half, you have to have a maturity and a discipline, really, to just kind of hang,” Lange said. “You go through lulls like that, it happens.

“We didn’t do that. Part of it is them, part of it is us.”

Dayton did change its approach. The Flyers stopped posting Holmes and started to spread their offense out. They got the ball into the hands of shooters and poured in shots from all over the floor. St. Joe’s had breakdowns in its help defense, defending Dayton’s cutters, covering pick-and-roll sets.

And on offense …

“You miss good shots, then you stop moving the ball and everybody wants to try to make the next play,” Lange said. “We have to grow up there. We have to be better there.”

The Hawks trailed by as many as 19, 69-50, with 6 minutes, 33 seconds to go before cutting the deficit to 11. The damage, however, had been done.

Erik Reynolds II, the Hawks’ leading scorer this season, finished with just six points, and three of them came on a meaningless triple inside one minute to play in the game. It was the first time since January of last year that Reynolds failed to reach double figures.

The good part, as Lange pointed out, is “we’re still in the middle of conference play and so it’s not the end of the year.” And St. Joe’s did show for a large stretch of the game that it could play with the conference’s best.

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The bad part, as the final score pointed out, is that basketball games aren’t decided in 20 minutes, and St. Joe’s is still being plagued by poor defense. The Hawks rank second in offensive efficiency in the A-10, according to KenPom. But they’re 13th out of 15 teams in defensive efficiency.

“The mistakes that we made in the second half on defense, you just can’t make those mistakes,” Lange said. “That part I’m upset about. I understand the human condition of not scoring. I get it. [Dayton] went through the same thing, but they were able to battle through it.”

That’s the maturity and discipline Lange referenced. One team had it Tuesday night, the other is still learning what it all means.