Afterward, senior guard Charoy Bentley smiled at the irony of it all, about how the Hawks were determined not to repeat the turnover-filled disaster of Jan. 5, when Duquesne unnerved the Hawks into 19 turnovers with its all-court pressure.
"We're not really used to scoring that many points, but they have a great defense, and no matter what, they're going to speed you up with their press," Bentley said after St. Joe's (11-21) won its third consecutive win-or-go-home game, giving Martelli his 300th career win in dramatic and agonizing fashion. "They like to trap a lot and they like to speed it up. We planned on trying to slow it down, but it just didn't happen that way."
In the 35 years of the A-10 tourney, there have been few more unlikely semifinalists than these freshman-dominated Hawks. They had to win at Charlotte on the final day of the regular season just to make the tourney. Then they upset No. 5 seed George Washington in D.C. Now this.
"These kids always played with heart," said Martelli, whose team went winless in January and had a nine-game losing streak. "We just weren't good enough. When we went through January, we weren't good enough, and I hadn't coached them well enough. When we came up with a way to play, they got more confident."
The Hawks' confidence began to grow when they downshifted into a slower tempo. But for much of Friday's game, they were caught up in Duquesne's frenetic pace. They kept fighting, kept making big shots, and they overcame fatigue to prolong the season.
