By PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — Tournament Most Outstanding Player Isaiah Miles scored 26. Teammate DeAndre’ Bembry finished with a game-high 30, and the Saint Joseph’s Hawks claimed the Atlantic 10 Championship title defeating VCU, 87-74.
The Hawks scored on 11 of their first 16 possessions, took the lead less than six minutes into the game on a Bembry free throw line jumper and never trailed again.
Aaron Brown scored six straight in the game’s opening moments to pace Saint Joseph’s to its second A-10 title in three years.
“We just wanted to punch first,” Brown said. “In the previous two games, VCU got off to some hot starts, and it really wasn’t close. They weren’t really challenged as we could see. We just wanted to punch first and play from there.”
All-tournament representative Bembry hit 13-of-16 shots from the floor including 4-of-7 behind the arc. Miles finished 11-of-16 as the Hawks shot 64.8 percent (35-54) for the day. Saint Joseph’s outscored VCU 54-34 in the paint.
“Because of the size that they play with, we had some opportunities to get straight-line drives,” Saint Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli said. “We were able to do that and I thought that the passing was extraordinary. We cut. We told them that they had to treat it as if everything was a trap, and you had to make a cut off the ball. And I think that as the game got longer and the score started to mount, I think VCU started to stretch the floor, and we were able to slice and dice a little bit.
“The cutting and their implementation of a plan that we put together in a hotel room last night for them was extraordinary.”
Miles combined with Bembry on a pick-and-pop three to give Saint Joseph’s its first double-digit lead of the game at 27-17 with 7:57 to go in the first.
Miles finished a 3-point play to give the Hawks their largest lead of the game at 70-49 with 8:45 remaining.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” the senior forward said. “I’m just happy for all the seniors being able to finish on top, and it’s just like a senior’s dream, finishing as high as you possibly can. I’ve been saying that all year, and finally all the work, all the summer work, everything paid off.”
Playing through Mo Alie-Cox, VCU was able to cut the lead to seven. The VCU finished an alley oop from JeQuan Lewis with a dunk. He followed with a strong move in the lane to score through a double team. On the next possession, the 6-7 junior went inside-out to feed Jordan Burgess for a triple.
Saint Joseph’s led 75-68.
Bembry scored four straight to push the lead back to 15.
“There’s a reason those two (Bembry and Miles) are two of the top-five players in the league,” VCU head coach Will Wade said. “They’ve got a heck of a team. They’ve got a good scheme…They just go straight downhill at you and it’s very, very difficult to guard. We really needed to establish Mo earlier kind of like we did at the end and like we did at the end at their place, and we just weren’t able to establish him.”
The Championship was the fourth for Saint Joseph’s.
VCU was able to get double-digit leads early against UMass in the quarter-finals and Davidson in the semi-finals.
Saint Joseph’s Lamarr Kimble handed out a game-high nine assists.
Korey Billbury and Lewis led VCU with 19 points apiece. Lewis collected seven assists.
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