It looked like St. Joe's sophomore Lamarr Kimble was going to come up clutch yet again for the Hawks. After all, he was the reason St. Joe's forced two overtimes against Fordham.
With seven seconds remaining in double-overtime, Kimble knocked down two big free throws to knot the game at 83.
Fordham’s Antwonie Anderson answered back for the Rams (10-13, 4-6 A-10) by hitting a game-winning three at the buzzer to send St. Joe's (10-12, 3-7 A-10) to an 86-83 double-overtime loss Saturday night at Hagan Arena (see Instant Replay).
“We tried, we just weren’t good enough,” said St. Joe's head coach Phil Martelli, who coached his 350th Atlantic 10 game.
Kimble finished with 24 points, five rebounds and four assists to lead the Hawks. James Demery added 14 points and five rebounds.
Martelli, who likes to reference the numbers, talked about how 75 was not their number in the last game they played, referring to Davidson's point total in the loss to the Wildcats. This time it came down to field goal percentage and foul shots.
“It’s just numbers,” he said. “Two guys go 7 for 20 from the foul line. It’s embarrassing. Thirteen of 40 on two-pointers, and then we froze against the zone going into the last three minutes.
“(It was) our lack of ball movement, we just held the ball too long.”
St. Joe’s would not have been in any position to win if it weren't for the hot hand of Charlie Brown. The freshman drained six threes and set a career-high of 22 points – his previous was 19. Brown has been in double-digits in 13 of his last 14 games. His sharp shooting helped the Hawks jump out to a 19-11 lead in the first half, and his second three in the second half gave the Hawks their biggest lead of the game at 13.
Despite his hot shooting, Brown was silenced in both overtimes.
“We have to get him to hunt a little bit more against the zone,” Martelli said. “He was kind of moving through the zone instead of hunting for the dead spots.”
Judging by the first half and most of the second it looked like the Hawks would be cruising to a double-digit victory. They led by 15 with 9:44 left, but Fordham used a 9-0 run to get within 61-59 with one minute remaining in the game. A three from Chris Sengfelder with 19 seconds left gave the Rams their first lead, 62-61, since the first three minutes of the game.
Fordham shot only 12 for 34 from three, but were 6 for 12 in the second half.
“I don’t think we communicated very well," Martelli said of the defensive miscues. “I don’t think we communicated well at all. That has been part of our trying to grow up. Communication was off. Not like the plan or anything like that just straight communication.
“This is the way they are raised in basketball. They don’t talk, nobody talks anymore during the game. And you can’t guard the way we wanted to guard and not communicate.”
The Hawks' next game will be on the road Tuesday against second-place Dayton.