First home game: SJU Hawks vs Marist: 81-62
On Wednesday, my host university of Saint Joseph’s played their first home game of the season against Marist College (close to New York).
As already mentioned in a previous post, SJU’s headcoach is for the 19th year in a row Phil Martelli. Coach Martelli won the trophy of “National Coach of the Year” in 2004. This is the historical year that their key player, Jameer Nelsen (now starting point-guard for the Orlando Magic), was named “Player of the Year” and SJU advanced to the so-called “Elite 8”. This is the final NCAA competition between the eight best college teams of the country.
For 2013-2014, SJU has one European player on their roster, German Javon Baumann. The key players for this squad are seniors Langston Galloway (2) and Ronald Roberts (4). Also, the team has recruited a very talented freshman DeAndre Bembry on the 3 spot. Chris Wilson on the point-guard (1) and Halil Kanacevic (5) complete their starting line-up. Saint Joseph’s plays in the highly competitive “Atlantic 10”-conference.
Some highlights of the game:
The boxscore can be found here. Reviews of the game: SJUHawks.com, Philahoops.com.
The Hagan Arena has a fantastic atmosphere, mainly because of an enthousiastic student section. To give you an idea, this is a movie about how crazy they get every single time that Coach Martelli and his staff walks in the gym, a couple of minutes before tip-off. The video dates from 2008:
Some pictures:
Hagan Arena with the Ramsay Basketball Center
Gym in the Hagan Arena
Postgame analysis
Office at the Ramsay Basketball Center in the Hagan Arena
German Javon Baumann
Game picture (Copyright Sideline Photos LLC)
Some pictures of the game can be found in this gallery (Sideline Photos LLC).
