2011 Saint Joseph's Hawks Basketball: Saint Joseph's @ Charlotte

The most important game of the day likely took place at Halton Arena as Saint Joseph's and Charlotte played with the 12th seed in next week's Atlantic 10 Tournament on the line. A Charlotte victory would have given them the tiebreaker, but they ended up finishing their season on an eight-game losing streak as Langston Galloway capped a 27-point day with a free throw in the final seconds. Saint Joseph's (9-21, 4-12) won 71-70 and as a result draws five-seed George Washington on Tuesday.

Chris Braswell led the 49ers (10-20, 2-14) with 16 points and 10 rebounds but it wasn't enough for the win despite Charlotte taking care of the basketball as well as they have all season, finishing the game with just six turnovers. In addition to Galloway tying his career-high Carl Jones scored 19 points and handed out six assists, and as a team the Hawks swatted eight shots on the afternoon.

Charlotte dominated on the glass, out-rebounding the Hawks 36-23 and scoring 18 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds (the Hawks didn't score any second-chance points). The 49ers were out of the gates quickly, scoring seven of the first nine points of the game with Javarris Barnett scoring five. But Phil Martelli's club would answer with three pointers from Jones and Galloway to take their first lead of the game. The two teams would exchange baskets before six unanswered points by Charlotte pushed the lead out to five with 12:23 left in the half.

Saint Joseph's would score nine of the next 11 points, all coming on threes, to take an 18-17 lead with 8:24 to go only to have Kendria Holmes answer with a three of his own to make the score 20-18. Charlotte would lead by as many as five points on two separate occasions but the Hawks would pull them back, and then take the lead on a Galloway three just before the halftime horn. Charlotte outscored the visitors 22-10 in the paint and 11-0 in second-chance points in the first half but still trailed 35-33.

The Hawks would push their lead out to four on a Jones jumper 13 seconds into the second half, and after a pair of Charlotte missed threes Galloway would can another from distance to give the Hawks their largest lead of the game (at the time) at 40-33. That would be the beginning for Galloway in the second half as he knocked down threes on three straight possessions to push the Hawks' lead out to nine at 46-37 with 16:43 to go. After a Daryus Quarles basket gave Saint Joseph's a 48-40 lead Charlotte scored the next seven points to cut the deficit to one at the 13-minute mark.

The Hawks would push their lead back out to four but the hard-charging 49ers tied the game on a Derrio Green basket with 10:44 remaining. The Hawks would lead by as many as five points but couldn't shake Charlotte, who tied the game three times in the final 4:08 of the game. The last of those ties would come with 12 seconds left as Green drained a three to tie things up at 70. But Galloway would get loose one last time, breaking the Charlotte press and forcing Barnett to give the foul. Galloway missed the second free throw but with no timeouts remaining the 49ers were forced to hope that Green's heave would fall.

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