“The Hawk Will Never Die,” at least for now. St Joe’s moves on after defeating Dayton 73-68 in OT on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
St. Joe’s (22-11, 11-7), who lost to VCU in the A-10 semifinals last year, will battle George Mason(25-7, 15-3) on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals.
As they did against LaSalle in the second round on Thursday, the Hawks, who led by as many as 15 points in the first half, took a nine-point lead into halftime, and they kept the lead for most of the half until Dayton’s Amael L’Etang hit a three to tie things at 46 with 8:24 to go in the second half.
Dayton’s Malachi Smith made a layup with:18 seconds, and the Flyers had their largest lead at 60-56, but St. Joe’s star guard Xzayvier Brown made two free throws after he was fouled with:14 seconds to go to cut the lead to two; however, they needed some help, and Smith would help as he missed the front-end of a one-and-one; Smith would make things worse by fouling Brown, and like he did previously, Brown made both free throws.
After Smith would miss a driving layup at the end of regulation, the Hawks were able to get to overtime.
In the extra session, St. Joe’s star backcourt of Erik Reynolds II and Brown took over. They would score 11 of the Hawks’ 13 points, and St. Joe’s, who never trailed in OT, got the job done.
Reynolds scored a game-high 21 points, and Brown added 20. The two combined to score 41 of St. Joe’s 73 points.
L’Etang and Bennett led the way for Dayton with 15 points a piece.
The last time the Hawks battled George Mason, they lost on the road in heartbreaking fashion, 58-57, back in February.
St. Joe’s can beat George Mason, but they will have to play better than they did on Friday.
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