Saint Joseph’s 67, St. Bonaventure 48
After needing some late-game heroics to dispatch of Dayton in the quarterfinals, the Hawks didn’t wait quite so long to put away St. Bonaventure Saturday afternoon. Following a back-and-forth first half that saw the teams enter the locker room at halftime tied, St. Joe’s cranked up the defensive intensity and held St. Bonaventure to a season-low 19 points in the second half. Playing their third game in three days, the Bonnies simply ran out of gas in the final 20 minutes, as they finished the game shooting an abysmal 25% from the field. From the 19-minute mark of the second half on, St. Bonaventure scored just a single point over the next 8-plus minutes, as the Hawks flipped a one-point deficit into a 13-point lead. St. Joe’s continued to stretch the lead from there, cruising to a victory and earning their first trip to the A-10 tournament final since 2008.
Langston Galloway carried the Hawks against Dayton, and had another solid performance Saturday with 18 points, but the true star against St. Bonaventure was fellow senior Halil Kanacevic. The St. Joe’s big man went off for 26 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 assists, working the post game to repeatedly earn trips to the free throw line and even helping the stretch the defense with a pair of threes. They’ll need a similar effort from that pair of seniors Sunday against VCU in the championship game. The Hawks are bound to have tired legs as well, and facing the frenzied defense of the Rams, fatigue may play into things more than usual. However, the Hawks already defeated VCU in Philadelphia last month, doing a nice job of keeping their turnovers in check, a key component if any team is going to take down the Rams. They’ll need a similar effort if they’re to claim their first A-10 tournament title since 1997.
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