Game Info: March 13-16, 2025 Location: Capital One Arena - Washington, D.C. Tickets | TV (Thursday): USA | Listen: sjuhawks.com | Live Stats: sjuhawks.com | Saint Joseph's Pre-Tournament Notes | La Salle Game Notes
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Opening Tip The Saint Joseph's men's basketball team prepares for the 2025 Atlantic 10 Championship, March 12-16. The Hawks are looking for their fifth A-10 tournament title and their first since 2016.
Hawks In The A-10 Tournament Saint Joseph's has competed in the Atlantic 10 Championship in every season of the event, winning four times, in 1986, 1997, 2014 and 2016. The Hawks also advanced to the championship game in 2005, 2006 and 2008. SJU is 46-37 all-time in the A-10 tournament.
Turning The Tide After not playing more than two games in the conference championship from 2017-22, amassing a 3-6 record, the Hawks have found success in the past two seasons. St. Joe's has won two games in both 2023 and 2024 and is 4-2 in the A-10's. Saint Joseph's run to the semifinals last season was its deepest effort since winning the title in 2016.
Lucky Number 6 The number six seed has been a good place to be in recent history in the Atlantic 10 Championship. In three of the last five tournaments that were played to completion, the sixth seed has won three. times. Saint Louis claimed the title from the spot in 2019, Richmond turned the trick in 2022 and Duquesne achieved the feat last season, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977.
So You're Saying There's A Chance Winning four games in four days to take home a conference tournament is a tough task, but not impossible. Since 2017, 22 teams across NCAA Division I have accomplished it, an average of 2.75 per season. Last year, three teams were successful, including Duquesne in the A-10. New Mexico and NC State were the other two. NC State became the second team to win five games in five days in their run to the ACC crown. The most in any season since 2017 was in 2021 when five teams won four games in four days to earn a title.
Hawks-Explorers IV? Ok, so maybe its not Balboa vs. Drago, but if La Salle beats UMass in the First Round on Wednesday, it will set up a first in the 115-year series between the Hawks and Explorers. Despite playing 132 times since the 1909-10 season, SJU and La Salle have never met four times in a season. The unique possibility comes about because of the new Big 5 format where the two teams are only allowed to meet in the Big 5 Classic championship game, which occurred on December 7. They then played twice in the regular season. Saint Joseph's and La Salle have played each other three times in a year on five previous occasions, most recently in 2021-22. Prior to the 2020-21 season, it hadn't happened since 1934-35. It would also mark the third time the Hawks played the Explorers in their final regular season game and their first A-10 tournament game, matching the 1997-98 and 2000-01 teams.
The Stars Are Out Saint Joseph's was recognized for its season as five different members of the team were named Atlantic 10 All-Conference on Tuesday. Xzayvier Brown and Rasheer Fleming were selected to the First Team. Erik Reynolds II is on the Second Team. Justice Ajogbor is All-Defensive and Dasear Haskins is on the All-Rookie Team. The three First and Second Team honorees match the 2011-12 and 2013-14 teams for the most in program history. Having five unique players selected as All-Conference is a new program standard.
Alone At The Top (Part I) Erik Reynolds II continued to add to his SJU program record for scoring with 22 points at La Salle on Saturday. He currently sits at 2,136 points heading into the A-10 Championship. With his third point of the night against Rhode Island on March 5, coming on a trey at the 3:14 mark of the first half, he passed former National Player of the Year Jameer Nelson (2000-04), who amassed 2,094 points in his Hawks' tenure. Nelson had the record for 21 seasons after passing Bernard Blunt (1990-95). Both Nelson and Blunt were in attendance at the record-breaking game.
Alone At The Top (Part II) Reynolds made some more St. Joe's history with his five three-pointers against La Salle. The total gave him 346 in his career, passing Langston Galloway (2011-14) for the most ever for Saint Joseph's. The duo are the only two players in program history with 300 or more makes from beyond the arc.
Coming Into His Own Anthony Finkley has made the most of his opportunity to start, particularly in the last three games. The sophomore recorded career best scoring totals in consecutive contests with 15 at Fordham before putting up 18 against Rhode Island. He followed it up with 13 points at La Salle in just 15 minutes of action. It is the first time in his career that he has scored in double figures in back-to-back games. Overall, he is averaging 9.3 points and 5.0 rebounds as a starter, up from 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in a reserve role. He is also shooting 50.9 percent from the floor since starting.
Bright Lights Don't Faze Him For all of his impressive performances throughout his career, Erik Reynolds II has been at his best in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. He leads all active A-10 players at 18.4 points per game in conference championship play and is second in total points with 129. From a national perspective, he is tied for the 13th most points in conference tournament games in NCAA Division I and is fifth on that list in PPG. The Temple Hills, Md. product has two of his career 30-point games in the A-10 Championship. His 34-point effort against George Washington in 2023 was the most in an Atlantic 10 tournament game since 2018 and he is one of two players with multiple games of 30+ in the conference championship since 2005 (Peyton Aldridge - Davidson).
20-20 Vision The victory against Rhode Island was the 20th of the season for the Hawks. It is the 24th time in program history Saint Joseph's has won 20 or more games in a season. Combined with a 21-14 record last year, St. Joe's has hit the mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2003-04 and 2004-05 when the team collected 30 and 24 victories, respectively. It is the eighth time that SJU has earned 20+ wins in back-to-back years.
(Block) Party Like It's 2013 Saint Joseph's finished the season atop the A-10 in blocks and was sixth in the nation at 5.6 rejections per game. The 5.6 swats per contest are the most for the Hawks since 2013 when they had 5.7 an outing. This season's blocks per game number is the fourth highest in program history. In 2011-12, led by 120 by C.J. Aiken, SJU knocked away 7.2 opposing shots a night. St Joe's has double digit blocks in a game three times this year. When it achieved the feat against Navy in the season opener, it was the first time SJU had turned away 10+ opponent shots in a game since January 12, 2013 at Duquesne.
Swiping Left Individually, a pair of Hawks have led the charge in turning aside shots.vJustice Ajogbor continues to make opposing teams question their thoughts of driving to the basket. With his two blocks against La Salle, he has 70 swats on the year and is currently ninth place on the Hawks' single-season block list. He is 12th nationally with his 70 rejections and has turned aside three or more shots in a game 13 times. Not to be outdone, Rasheer Fleming has 49 blocks for the year, including a season-high five against Coppin State. It is only the second time in program history that SJU has had two or more players record at least 49 shots turned away in a season, matching the total of the 2011-12 team, which featured C.J. Aiken (120) and Halil Kanacevic (58). With his total from this year, Fleming has moved into the St .Joe's career top-10 in blocks, sitting ninth at 130.
Welcome To The Club With his dunk off an alley oop at the 11:20 mark of the second half at Fordham, Rasheer Fleming became the 60th member of the St. Joe's 1,000-point club. The total is even more impressive when its recognized that Fleming averaged just 5.8 points and scored only 176 total as a freshman.
Up Next The winner of Thursday's game will take on No. 3 Dayton on Friday, March 14 in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with the game to air on Peacock.