By PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — It came as a flurry of haymakers if such a thing is possible. Papa Ndao scored 11 points in 3:12, and the Saint Joseph’s Hawks had just enough to hold off the University of Dayton Flyers.
For head coach Phil Martelli, it was a matter of his fifth-year player even being on the floor.
Ndao connected three times from behind the arc and finished another basket underneath. His first 3-pointer stopped a 6-0 Dayton run. His third triple in the series pushed Saint Joseph’s advantage to nine with 5:06 remaining in the game.
Two minutes later, the Hawks led by ten on their way to an 82-79 victory in the semi-final round of the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship.
Teammate DeAndre’ Bembry set up Ndao twice in the sequence.
“Every shot that he took today was a big shot,” Bembry said. “That’s just the confidence we have in him and that’s the confidence he has in himself. I’m just happy for Pop. We know that he has that in him.”
The graduate student finished with a career-high 14 on 5-of-13 shooting including 4-of-10 from long range.
“It’s kind of special, but in a way it’s just another day,” said the stoic Ndao. “I feel like until we win a championship, I feel like every game is just a game, just to get there. It’s just a push to get what we want basically. We just want to — just got to keep that going, I guess.”
Ndao sat out last season for undisclosed medical reasons. That the 6-8 forward from Senegal was even on the court this season was uncertain.
“You have to understand this,” Martelli said. “Like last October, I was standing in front of a doctor and the doctor wasn’t talking about when he would be back to play. The doctor was talking about if he could get out of bed and function.
“So this was like serious stuff. He’s an unusual dude in that he takes everything like he’s got it. He’ll fix it. He was scared. He was scared that day because he saw the look on my face as the doctor was explaining to me, and then you understand the enormity of coaching because you are a parent. You are responsible. And this kid is from Senegal, so you have even more responsibility.”
Ndao did not play in the first six games this season. He had only reached double figure points in two other games. When the Hawks beat Dayton on February 17th, he played just 12 minutes and hit his only 3-point attempt of the night.
The timing couldn’t have been any better for Saint Joseph’s. Dayton held Bembry, the conference player of the year, to nine points snapping his string of games in double figures at 35. Isaiah Miles netted a game-high 26, but UD’s defense limited the Hawks leading scorer to 2-0f-5 shooting in the second half.
“It takes guys to step up,” Dayton’s Archie Miller said. “He’s a veteran player on a good team. He had his opportunities, and he cashed in. That’s how you win at this time of year. Somebody steps up and just makes some big plays, and I give him credit, some back breakers,.
“They do a really nice job with their ball screen actions in particular. They set a ton of doubles and staggers and they have two guys in the ball screen action that both can shoot threes. Most of the time you don’t have that when you’re dealing with certain teams. We try to keep our match-ups as they are, and we put two on the ball as much as we can. I thought we got dragged out a couple times, and you’ve got to give that guy (Ndao) credit.”
The seriousness of the situation did not stop Martelli from discussing Ndao as a player.
“I’ll be honest with you; the shots in the first half stuck out more because those are shots that I just assume he’s going to make,” Martelli said of Ndao’s 1-of-5 performance in the first 20 minutes. “We had a conversation after the Duquesne game. He was 1 for 7 at Duquesne, seven clean looks. But we took the seven shots, and his feet one time are split, the other time he’s (makes a motion with his hands to indicate sideways). He said to me ‘I was arrogant because I thought the ball was going in.’
“He can frustrate you, because you do think every shot is going in, and he does, and if you tell him to make an adjustment, he’s got the answer.”
Saint Joseph’s scored just one time during their first nine possessions of the contest as Dayton jumped to an early seven-point lead. Charles Cooke opened the scoring with a rebound and putback. Kendall Pollard scored the next four. Kyle Davis went the length of the floor after a steal, and UD led 11-4 with 13:37 to go in the half.
After six lead changes and two ties over the next four-plus minutes, Xeyrius Williams spotted the Flyers a six-point advantage hitting his only 3-point attempt of the day.
But Saint Joseph’s outscored Dayton 19-6 over the final 6:29 of the first half.
Bembry finished the game with eight assists. Aaron Brown added 16 points for the Hawks.
Dyshawn Pierre paced Dayton with 22 points. Scoochie Smith notched a double-double with 14 points and 11 assists. Cooke netted 13. Pollard chipped in 11.
Saturday’s semi-finals set a single-session attendance record of 10,439.
Saint Joseph’s will take on VCU in Sunday’s championship. The Hawks defeated the Rams in the 2014 final. A 12:30 p.m. tip off is scheduled.
Leave a Reply