PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (November 14, 2023) – Saint Joseph's University took down Stonehill men's basketball in both teams' first matchup as part of the Wildcat Challenge hosted by the University of Kentucky. The Hawks hosted the Skyhawks at Hagan Arena Tuesday night, winning the first meeting between the two teams, 100-56.

LEADERS

• Junior Shane O'Dell (Schenectady, N.Y.) led the Skyhawks in both scoring and rebounding with 16 points and four rebounds. He also tied freshman Louie Semona (Cincinnati, Ohio) for a team-high two assists.
• Freshman Todd Brogna (Southborough, Mass.) denied a team and season-high two blocks in the loss. Fellow freshman Austin Abrams (Ellicott City, Md.) led the Skyhawks with two steals.
• Xzayvier Brown was the game's leading scorer, knocking down eight of his 11 shot attempts for Saint Joseph's, tallying 21 points.
• Anthony Finkley corralled a game-high six boards in 13 minutes for the Hawks. Saint Joe's had three different players record four assists to lead the team in a balanced passing attack.

FIRST HALF 

• O'Dell drove the baseline and found Benigni spotting up on the wing for a three-pointer as the senior guard knocked down the jumper from long range for the first points of the game.
• Saint Joe's responded, scoring the next six points before a Brogna jumper from deep tied the score at 8-8 with 17:09 left to play in the first half.
• The Hawks would go on a 10-0 scoring run to take their first double-digit lead of the game, going 4-5 from the field during the run.
• O'Dell tallied the next seven points for the Skyhawk, knocking down his first three-pointer of the season as well as a pair of layups to make the score 22-15 with just over 12 minutes to go in the half.
• The O'Dell layup would be the final field goal of the half for the Skyhawks as they went 0-11 for the final 12 minutes of the half while Saint Joe's shot 11-20 resulting in a 24-6 run to close the half.
• Saint Joseph's went into the break leading 46-19 on 20-32 (62.5%) shooting from the field while Stonehill shot 5-25 (20%).

SECOND HALF

• Saint Joe's carried its hot shooting into the second half, making their first five shot attempts while sophomore Tony Felder (Brockton, Mass.) hit back-to-back three-pointers marking the first field goals for Stonehill since the 12-minute mark of the first half as the Hawks led 58-27 with 16:05 remaining in the game.
• The Skyhawks were outscored 23-7 over the next six minutes as the Hawks netted five more three-pointers to give them their largest lead of the game at 47 points, leading 81-34.
• For the remainder of the game, Stonehill outscored Saint Joe's with six different Skyhawks getting in on the action led by O'Dell who had seven points down the stretch, and Abrams also notching seven points.
• The final buzzer sounded as Saint Joseph's defeated Stonehill 100-56. The Hawks had a field goal percentage of 55.9% (19-34) in the second half and 59.1% (39-66) for the game.
• Stonehill made 12 of 37 (32.4%) shots in the second half to raise its shooting clip to 27.4% (17-62) for the game.

NOTEWORTHY

• This was the first meeting between the Skyhawks and the Hawks as Stonehill falls to 0-1 all-time against Saint Joe's.
• The Skyhawks are now 0-2 against Atlantic-10 teams this year, dropping their opening matchup at George Washington to begin the season.
• O'Dell led the Skyhawks in scoring in just his third game at the Division I level.
• Sophomore Chas Stinson (Charlotte, N.C.) has scored 7+ points in three of the four games this season, tied with graduate student Max Zegarowski (South Hamilton, Mass.) for the most such games on the team.
• Junior Neal Marquardt (Rockville Center, N.Y.) tallied his first point of the season while Abrams' seven points was a season-high for the freshman.
• Felder reached double-digits for the first time as a Skyhawk, scoring 11 points.

UP NEXT 

• Stonehill plays game number three of its five-game road trip with a matchup at the No. 17 University of Kentucky at Rupp Arena at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 17. This will be the first-ever meeting between the Skyhawks and the Wildcats.

Tickets for the 2023-24 men's and women's basketball season are on sale now and can be purchased at stonehillskyhawks.com/tickets. Season ticket options are available including a men's and women's combination pass, valid for all 27 home games this year. 

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