Each timeout, Pat Carroll would glance up at the scoreboard and blink in disbelief as St. Joseph’s kept falling further and further behind Xavier.
Like his teammates and just about everyone else who showed up at University of Dayton Arena for Thursday’s Atlantic 10 Conference tournament quarterfinal, Carroll figured Xavier eventually would miss a shot and the Hawks would start making some.
“I kept thinking we’d eventually get into the flow of the game, but we never did,” Carroll said, still shaking his head in disbelief in St. Joe’s quiet locker room. “I kept looking at the scoreboard and we weren’t getting any closer and I thought, `Damn, we haven’t had this feeling before.'”
The St. Joe’s Hawks took flight in mid-November and never touched ground, soaring to a historic 27-0 regular season until they reached No. 1 in the polls on Monday. Thursday, though, they returned to earth with a loud crash that resounded throughout a college basketball world they had charmed with their precise, passionate and selfless style of play.
The final score: Xavier 87, St. Joe’s 67. And it was a lot worse than the numbers suggest.
“They just jumped on us at the beginning, and we didn’t match their intensity,” senior guard Tyrone Barley said. “I don’t think we realized how desperate they were to win.”
By winning their 11th game in the last 12 and denying Barley and All-American Jameer Nelson their final chance to play for the A-10 championship, the Musketeers (21-10) stated their case for inclusion in the NCAA tourney.
With their remarkable 27-0 regular season, the Hawks already had their ticket punched to the Big Dance. The only question now is whether they’ll be a No. 1 seed in the East or drop to No. 2 when the tourney bracket is announced Sunday, not that it really matters.
At this point, the seeding is not what concerns the Hawks. Instead, they must work to recapture everything that was missing from their game Thursday, when Xavier dominated them at every turn.
Neither coach Phil Martelli nor his players offered any excuses. Not the unusually long layoff since their last game on March 2. Not the road-game atmosphere in a building that was overwhelmingly pro-Xavier, which is an hour’s drive to the south in Cincinnati.
“No, I don’t think the layoff had anything to do with it at all,” Martelli said. “I just saw us lose to a better team that was obviously hungry and desperate.”
Asked if he believes the NCAA tourney selection committee will take a dim view of the lopsided loss and drop them from a No. 1 seed, Martelli tried to lighten the mood, saying, “I’ll assume the committee’s televisions weren’t working and they never saw this.”
Turning more serious, he added, “We really can’t do anything about it. We had an opportunity to speak on the floor and we got [whipped.]”
The beating the Hawks took couldn’t have been more thorough.
The team that had never trailed by more than nine points during its 27-game winning streak was behind by 22 at the half and eventually by 37, 74-37.
The first half, St. Joe’s, which ranks 14th in the nation with a 48.4 shooting percentage, shot 8 of 28 (28.6 percent). They missed 40 of their first 51 shots. The crisp ball movement wasn’t there as Xavier consistently double-teamed Nelson and West, who had combined for 61 points in the Hawks’ mid-January victory at Xavier.
Thursday, Nelson needed 21 shots to score 16 points.
Senior guard Lionel Chalmers, who dominated the first half with his hot shooting and effective penetration, scored 23 points for Xavier. He shot 10 for 13. Romain Sato scored 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Role reversals
Largest margins of defeat for No. 1 teams
Against unranked opponents
20 Xavier 87, #1 St. Joseph’s 67, Thursday, at Dayton, Ohio (Atlantic 10 tournament)
19 Villanova 93, #1 Syracuse 74, Jan. 6, 1990, at Greensboro, N.C.
19 Wisconsin 86, #1 Ohio State 67, March 3, 1962, at Madison, Wis.
18 Maryland 69, #1 North Carolina 51, Feb. 21, 1959, at College Park, Md.
Against any opponent
41 #2 Kentucky 81, #1 St. John’s 40, Dec. 17, 1951, at Lexington, Ky.
32 #2 UCLA 101, #1 Houston 69, March 22, 1968, at Los Angeles (National semifinals)
24 #2 North Carolina 97, #1 Duke 73, Feb. 5, 1998, at Chapel Hill, N.C.
24 #3 Massachusetts 104, #1 Arkansas 80, Nov. 25, 1994, at Springfield, Mass.
