DANES FALL
Danes can’t hold on to second-half advantage against Atlantic 10 foe
The Ualbany men’s basketball team fritters away an eight-point lead and falls to the previously winless St. Joseph’s on the road, 67-64./
The 60s might sound comfortable if you’re enduring a Northeast winter or looking for antiwar protests, but it is an area the University at Albany basketball team would like to escape.
For all the offensive talent scattered around its roster, UALbany has scored in the 60s for all six of its games. Five times that hasn’t been enough.
Add Saturday night’s nonconference game in Philadelphia to the list, as the Great Danes — against a defense allowing 88.6 points per game — frittered away an eight-point lead in the second half and fell to previously winless St. Joseph’s, 67-64.
“Our defense has put us in a position to win all these games so far this season,” Ualbany coach Will Brown said. “The next step for us is we have to hit that 70-point marker. Once we do, we’ll win some more games.”
It wasn’t a horrible loss in the sense that St. Joseph’s (1-8) has lost its previous games by average of 17.1 points, since the
Hawks have the country’s sixthtoughest schedule according to the latest Pomeroy rankings.
The issue for the Danes, who scheduled this game only three days ago because America East foe Stony Brook paused its program with COVID-19 issues, is
that they have held leads of seven points or more in all of their losses.
“Our best offensive lineups are our weakest defensive lineups,” Brown said, “and our best defensive lineups are our weakest offensive lineups.”
For the fourth straight game the Danes played without preseason allAmerica East guard Cameron Healy (oblique), although he did participate in warmups. Adam Lulka (nose/ head) returned after missing two games but was limited to six minutes by foul trouble.
Ualbany (1-5) was up 56-48 with 9:09 remaining, and it was 59-52 with 7:55 to play. The Danes relinquished the sevenpoint lead in barely two minutes. The final five points in the Hawks’ 7-0 run came from the foul line.
“We turned the ball over too much, made the wrong decisions,” forward Jarvis Doles said after the Danes committed a season-high 17 turnovers. “It had more to do with us and our lack
of concentration or lack of intensity or whatever it may have been more so as opposed to stifling defense.”
Doles led Ualbany with 13 points. Kelly and Kellon Taylor each scored 11.
The Danes shot 45 percent, slightly above their season average of 42, but went scoreless in the final 2½ minutes. Leading scorer C.J. Kelly missed three shots in that span, including on a drive with 9.6 seconds left on which he appeared to be fouled but none was called.
Dahmir Bishop broke the 11th and final tie of the game, connecting on a fast-break layup with 1:47 to play. St. Joseph’s kept Ualbany in the game by missing three of four free throws in the final minutes, although the Hawks gained an extra possession off one miss with an offensive rebound.
Antonio Rizzuto missed a forced 3-pointer at the buzzer, preventing overtime.
“I don’t have the luxury to be a fan,” second-year St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange said, “so I have to find ways to be encouraged regardless of the result.
That’s leadership, that’s stewardship. The reality is with the hardest schedule in the country — that’s not an opinion, that is an actual metric — this team is four missed free throws away from now having four wins despite COVID, despite injuries, despite illnesses. It’s hard because I’m competitive, and our team is competitive.”