BOX SCORE
NEW YORK -- St. Joe?s staged a late rally on Friday night to claim an OT win over nationally-ranked Notre Dame. While the victory will certainly help the Hawks in the long run, it appeared to hinder them just a day later.
St. Joe?s could not find the energy to put together another second-half charge in a 73-66 loss to Florida State in the final of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic on Saturday at the Barclays Center (see Instant Replay).
The Hawks weren?t buying fatigue as being a good enough excuse after their first loss of the season.
?I don?t believe that. I don?t accept it. It?s what happened, but I don?t believe it,? St. Joe?s head coach Martelli said. ?What I just said to the players is you get 30 chances. When you get a chance, your chance might be 38 minutes. Your chance might be fewer than that, but you have to empty your tank and we didn?t do that tonight.?
?You play basketball day through night when you?re young,? Halil Kanacevic said. ?You don?t want to play here? You?re going to say you got tired legs playing in Brooklyn on a Saturday night against Florida State? Come on now. Tired legs, that?s not an excuse.?
Truth is, there was much more that the Hawks could pin the defeat on when looking back.
?I just feel like free throws came to get us, turnovers late and their alley-oop plays really hurt us,? said Ronald Roberts Jr., who was named to the all-tournament team after posting a second straight double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
?I think all types of plays, honestly. Fifty-fifty balls, setting proper screens, setting up guys for screens, letting them get a couple offensive rebounds and run down the court,? said Kanacevic, who fouled out with just six points. ?There?s a lot of things, a lot of little things that built up for them.?
Despite all of those miscues, the Hawks still found themselves down just four with 4:52 remaining on the clock.
Time to turn it on for another comeback, right? Not this time.
The Hawks connected on just one of their final six shots from the field from that point. Not even the return of guard Carl Jones from suspension could lift up the tired SJU club as it shot 23 of 54 (42 percent) from the field and a woeful 4 of 21 (19 percent) from long range.
?We did everything we could to rest their legs, to get them sharp, but there was no pop. There was no sizzle,? Martelli said.
There was plenty of sizzle from the Florida State offensive attack. The Seminoles came into the game averaging 53 percent shooting from the field and 44 percent from three-point range. The ?Noles improved on those marks by hitting 54 percent of shots from the field and 46 percent from distance as they methodically picked apart the Hawks.
St. Joe?s switched between a 1-3-1 zone and man-to-man defenses. Neither did anything to disturb a patient Florida State club, led by tournament MVP Michael Snear.
?I just feel like we had to buckle down and get some stops,? point guard Chris Wilson said. ?They?re just so athletic. I don?t know if it was so much their size, but all their frontcourt players really could get off the floor. They were strong, so it was just a different look that we haven?t really seen yet.?
?Florida State played a good game, but we lost. I feel like we lost, the whole locker room feels like we lost that game,? Kanacevic said. ?You got to hold yourself accountable. The whole team has to hold itself accountable from top to bottom. We just didn?t bring it as a whole unit tonight and that hurt us -- we lost.?
St. Joe?s will deal with the sting of a defeat for now as the team returns home to face Harvard on Tuesday.
The Hawks were reluctant to say if they learned anything from the tourney. They did express how disappointed they were in Saturday?s effort and that they can?t afford another loss the next time they step on court in this building for the Atlantic 10 tournament.
?The best thing that was said was Halil Kanacevic just said to them, ?that was all of us. It wasn?t one of us. It was all of us,'" Martelli said. "That?s disappointing because the next time we?re up here you have to play back-to-back nights to keep advancing.?
E-mail Matt Haughton at mhaughton@comcastsportsnet.com.
Tags: hawks, florida state, St. Joe's, Phil Martelli, seminoles, Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, Ronald Roberts Jr., Michael Snaer, no sizzleJulian Castro Blue Moon August 2012 Eddie Murphy Dead michelle obama robin roberts Democratic National Convention 2012 myocardial infarction
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