The Hawk will never die, indeed.
After allowing a big lead to get away in its last game, St. Joe’s flipped things around on Saturday afternoon by storming back from down double digits for a 75-70 win over Davidson.
The Hawks (9-11, 3-5 Atlantic 10) outscored the Wildcats 47-29 during the second half to earn the win, which was just their third in the last 10 games and snapped a two-game skid.
Davidson (14-5, 5-3 A-10) had a two-game winning streak broken.
Turning point
St. Joe’s watched the Atlantic 10’s best three-point shooting team make one bomb after another all day long. But it was the Hawks’ own shots from deep that ended up putting the game away.
With St. Joe’s up by one, DeAndre' Bembry splashed in a three-pointer with a defender in his face to give the Hawks a four-point advantage.
After a rare miss on an open three from Davidson, St. Joe’s secured the rebound. Point guard Chris Wilson was able to find Isaiah Miles with the shot clock winding down for a shot from beyond the arc. Miles connected on the trey and was fouled with just under three minutes remaining. He made the free throw to push the Hawks’ lead to seven.
Miles drilled another triple from almost the same spot with around a minute and a half remaining to help seal the comeback win.
Big men on campus
Bembry flirted with a triple-double with 21 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists.
Aaron Brown had 20 points and four rebounds. Miles finished with 13 points, five boards and two blocks.
Peyton Aldridge led Davidson with 24 points. He was 7 of 12 from three-point range. Aldridge also chipped in seven rebounds.
Brian Sullivan had 17 points, while Tyler Kalinoski added 15.
Numbers game
• St. Joe’s held the nation’s seventh-ranked scoring offense (81.9 points per game) to its third-lowest scoring total of the season.
• Davidson is the A-10’s top three-point shooting squad at 39.5 percent a game. The Wildcats shot 14 of 33 (42.4 percent) from distance on Saturday.
• Bembry extended his streak of scoring at least 20 points to five straight games.
• Free-throw shooting nearly came back to bite the Hawks down the stretch. St. Joe’s was 14 of 25 from the charity stripe.
History lesson
Saturday’s matchup marked the first meeting between St. Joe’s and Davidson as members of the same conference.
St. Joe’s holds an 8-5 advantage in the all-time series that dates back to 1956.
What’s next?
St. Joe’s heads outside of Philadelphia for the first time in five games when it travels to St. Louis for a 7:30 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.
Davidson heads back to North Carolina for the first of three home games against St. Bonaventure at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.