By Paul Gotham
BROOKLYN — Less than four minutes remained in Saturday afternoon’s Atlantic 10 semi-final game between Saint Bonaventure’s Bonnies and the Saint Joseph’s Hawks. Halil Kanacevic slipped a screen, and teammate Langston Galloway led him to the basket for a dunk and a 19-point St. Joseph’s lead at 61-42.
Galloway took this opportunity to offer a rare show of emotion. The senior guard, who had scored 18 on the day and 31 in St. Joseph’s quarter-final win over Dayton, chose his teammate’s basket in a double-digit game to celebrate.
“Me and Halil were talking that at the end of the bench at the end of the game,” Galloway said of the play. “It happened when we played at St. Bonaventure. I hit Halil with the same pass and he dunked on Andell (Cumberbatch). But this time, I knew it was coming. I was just waiting for him. He kept slipping all night and I finally got an open look to try to hit him with a quick pass and he finished with a dunk.”
Galloway netted 16 as the Hawks outscored Bona 38-19 after the break. He hit 5 of 7 from the floor including both of his attempts behind the three-point arc.
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive and then I mean, these guys, Halil and Ron (Roberts Jr.), were finding me and I was getting open looks and we just got going from there. It’s all credit to this team. We played a great game tonight.”
St. Joseph’s advances to the A-10 Championship for the first time since 2008. A recent two-game losing streak seems a distant memory. So, too, does the prospect of having to open the tournament against the conference’s hottest team in Dayton.
“When we came here (to Brooklyn), we didn’t know if we would keep going,” St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli said. “Like we didn’t know if we would keep playing.”
Instead Galloway connected on 9 of 16 and 6 of 11 from long range including the game-winner to beat the Flyers.
“I liked the idea that he was hunting, and I could feel it,” Martelli said after Friday’s win. “There was no hesitation on where we were going to go.”
“There’s a fighter in there,” Martelli continued. “He’s a product of how he was raised, and you want good things for good people, and he’s certainly brought it.”
It is that fight which Galloway has shown and has put the Hawks in position to win their first conference title since 1997. As a freshman he and his teammates endured a 9-21 regular season mark including 4-12 in conference play. They managed to win a pair of overtime games in the first two rounds of the 2011 tournament to advance to the semi-finals before losing.
This pre-season, despite scoring 13.8 a year ago and hitting nearly 40 percent behind the arc, Galloway was left off the conference first-team ballot. He responded by averaging more than 17 while grabbing 4.4 rebounds.
“Langston has a fire that you almost have to quell at times, because he always wants to be in the gym and he always wants to get shots,” Martelli explained. “He has to listen to what we’re telling him about, you know, get off your feet, rest, and just keep driving at this thing, because that’s the attention that he deserved.”
This team has a chance to do what the 2003-04 couldn’t: win an A-10 title. Jameer Nelson’s Hawks won 27 straight before falling in the conference final. Saint Joseph’s will tip off against VCU in the A-10 Championship game Sunday afternoon at 1 pm. It will be the third game in three days for Galloway and the Hawks. He played 33 minutes Saturday and 40 on Friday.
St. Joseph’s beat VCU, 69-62 in their only meeting this season.
“We’ve just got to go out there, seize the moment, play hard and leave it all out there because there’s no tomorrow,” Galloway said. “I mean, it’s a championship game, and we’re going to come with a lot of energy.”
Leave a Reply