St. Joe’s season ends in overtime loss to Seton Hall in first round of NIT

After receiving their first postseason berth since 2016, Billy Lange’s St. Joe’s Hawks were given a big challenge for the first round: facing No. 1 seed Seton Hall at the Pirates’ arena in the first-round of the National Invitational Tournament.

The Hawks fell to Virginia Commonwealth in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament just two wins shy of an NCAA Tournament bid, but had their season extended in a different way by making an NIT appearance for the first time since 2013.

The Hawks and the Pirates had met in the NIT 68 years earlier to the day, and St. Joe’s had won that matchup. History didn’t repeat. Seton Hall (21-12) came away with a 75-72 overtime victory Wednesday night that ended the season for St. Joe’s (21-14).

Al-Amir Dawes hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds to play in overtime for the last points of the game. Cameron Brown missed a potential tying three-pointer with 41 seconds left and Erik Reynolds II missed another with three seconds left.

Reynolds led the Hawks with a game-high 27 points. Dawes led the Pirates with 26. Dawes hit the game-tying three-pointer with 31 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. That came seconds after a Reynolds layup had given the Hawks a 68-65 lead.

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Neither team led by more than eight points and the lead changed nine times throughout Wednesday night’s matchup.

The biggest challenge for the Hawks? Connecting from three-point range in the second half.

St. Joe’s went 7-of-18 from beyond the arc in the first half, but things changed going in the second. The Hawks didn’t hit a three for the first 15 minutes of the second half.

The Hawks led by eight, 52-44, with 14 minutes, 8 seconds left in the second half, but their shooting struggles led to a 15-2 Seton Hall run, giving the Pirates a five-point lead with 7:56 remaining.

Finally, the Hawks started firing when they needed it most, with a couple of clutch threes from Xzayvier Brown (13 points, 10 assists), Reynolds, and Cameron Brown in the final minutes. They managed to take the No. 1 seed to overtime, but that was where it ended.

Hawks junior Lynn Greer III did not play, having been ruled out with a wrist injury that had limited his action this season.

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Seton Hall will host North Texas in the second round of the NIT on Saturday.