By Peter Gleason
With their Atlantic-10 season more than a month away, St.Joseph’s and LaSalle both scored wins Saturday.
DeAndre Bembry (photo above) had 22 points and nine rebounds, Isaiah Miles added 15 points and Saint Joseph’s beat Vermont 68-60.
Bembry scored 16 of his 22 in the second half, Miles made 3 of 7 from 3-point range and Aaron Brown chipped in 13 points as the Hawks (2-2) bounced back from Wednesday’s 52-point loss at No. 13 Gonzaga.
Saint Joseph’s overcame a slow start due to an early shooting slump and controlled the second half, taking its largest lead at 46-32 with 13:30 to go.
Vermont (2-2) pulled within 61-56 on Ethan O’Day’s layup with 3:23 left. The Hawks responded with five straight points and held on from there.
The Catamounts opened the game on an 11-1 run before the Hawks took the lead for good during an 11-0 run to go up 19-16.
Jordan Price scored 22 points and LaSalle played tough defense for a 59-50 win over St. Peter’s.
The Explorers (3-0) scored the first 11 points of the game, punctuated by a Jerrell Wright dunk at the 14:20 mark. The Peacocks (0-4) trailed 23-14 at the half and La Salle went on to hold an opponent to less than 60 points for the third straight game, the first time the Explorers have done that since December of 2011.
Wright, who was day-to-day with a back injury that kept him out of the second half of La Salle’s last game, finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds and Amar Stukes added 11 points.
