St. Joe's suffered a major loss during Friday night's victory over George Washington.
Leading-scorer Shavar Newkirk will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee, the program announced Sunday evening.
With just seconds left in the first half of Friday's victory, Newkirk stole the ball and seemed to have an easy bucket at the other end, but his knee gave out while going up for the layup. The junior guard hopped to the sideline and eventually had to be carried to the locker room. He will undergo surgery some time in the next few weeks.
Newkirk is the Hawks' leading-scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game. He's scored 20-plus points in all but four of the team's 12 games this season.
“This is certainly disappointing to all of us in the Saint Joseph’s basketball program," head coach Phil Martelli said in a statement. "Our thoughts and concern go out to Shavar and his family. We're fully supportive of him, academically and socially, and as he makes his return to the basketball court, bigger, stronger and better than ever. His teammates have expressed the same level of support.”
With Newkirk out, sophomore guard Lamarr Kimble will be tasked with taking the reins of the Hawks' offense.
“Just because one of our main players are down, we can’t fold and be sorry about that,” Kimble said after the win over George Washington.
Kimble is averaging 14.8 points and 4.5 assists per game.
St. Joe's is 7-5 (1-0 in A-10 play) and will play Rhode Island on Tuesday.