Saint Joseph’s Shavar Newkirk will miss the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL in the Hawks’ win over GW on Friday night. The junior guard led the Hawks in scoring with 20.3 points per game and was one of SJU’s biggest deep threats, having hit 39.6% of his threes through SJU’s 7-5 start.
The news comes just as 6’6 junior James Demery returned to the lineup following a stress fracture that held him out all but the opening game of this season.
Newkirk went down after 18 minutes of play in Friday’s contest with a non-contact injury. He’ll have surgery to repair the damage in three to four weeks.
“This is certainly disappointing to all of us in the Saint Joseph’s basketball program. Our thoughts and concern go out to Shavar and his family,” said head coach Phil Martelli. “We’re fully supportive of him, academically and socially, and as he makes his return to the basketball court, bigger, stronger and better than ever. His teammates have expressed the same level of support.”
The Hawks are coming of an A-10 tournament championship season but lost three key pieces from that team including A-10 Player of the Year and NBA first round draft pick, DeAndre Bembry. Newkirk’s injury adds to a thinning roster that had already lost sophomore Pierfrancesco Olivia this summer to a knee condition that caused him to miss this season.
They’ll play their next two games on the road starting at Rhode Island on Tuesday night.
