Still reeling from a brutally close loss to rival Villanova, Saint Joseph’s desperately needed a win to regain their confidence and swagger. Instead, they dropped a game at home to Fairfield who came in ranked 127th on KenPom. The game was close from the beginning but the Hawks shot 33% from the field and failed to build a sizable lead when they had the opportunity to do so.
Derek Needham scored 24 points for Fairfield including an off-balance heave from three to win it. He made more three-pointers (5) than the entire Hawks team (4). Abadou Sidibe added 10 points and 9 rebounds and consistently out-muscled SJU’s bigs in the second half.
For the first time since a loss to Florida State, the Hawks offense got players the shots they wanted but no one seemed to be able to make those shots aside from dunks and there were even a number of those that were missed. Ronald Roberts wowed the crowd with a few thunderous dunks in the first half but he was contained in the second as he only scored two points in the final frame. He finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Langston Galloway heated up in the second half after a slow first by scoring three three-pointers but his fellow guard Tay Jones failed to score a field goal and had only three points in a rather lackluster performance.
The Hawks felt the absence of Halil Kanacevic who served the first game of a two-game suspension for a hand gesture during the Villanova game. Papa Ndao and Isaiah Miles failed to score filling in for him.
The Hawks will not have six days to dwell on their atrocious shooting performance before they take on Iona at home on December 28th.
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