Five Games In

Five games into the 2009-2010 campaign and the Saint Joseph's Hawks sit a game over .500 at 3-2. The Hawks won their first two home games at the Hagan Arena over Drexel and Holy Cross. Over the weekend, the Hawks participated in the Paradise Jam tournament in the US Virgin Islands. On Friday night, the Hawks upset the Boston College Eagles behind strong performances by a senior and a freshman. Senior guard Garrett Williamson had one of his best performances to date, finishing the game with 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Freshman guard Tay Jones had 16 points, tying him with Darrin Govens as the game's second leading scorer.

On Sunday, following their upset of the BC Eagles, the Hawks faced the seventh-ranked team in America: the Purdue Boilermakers. The Hawks looked strong early and trailed by only one at the half. The second half was a completely different story as the Boilermaker defense completely took it to the Hawks, leading to a total of 23 turnovers for the game. Garrett Williamson, coming off a brilliant performance against Boston College, led offenders with 8 turnovers.

On Monday night, the Hawks played in the third-place game against a DePaul team that went 0-18 in the Big East last season. On top of that, DePaul was without Mac Koshwal, who is hands-down their best post player. Despite both of those things, the Blue Demons won a nailbiter against the Hawks. The Hawks frontcourt of Todd O'Brien, Idris Hilliard, Bryant Irwin, and Carl Baptiste combined for only 7 points and 13 rebounds. On the bright side, the Hawks got a surprising 9 point effort out of junior guard Charoy Bentley (pictured above). Sophomore guard Chris Prescott had another impressive performance, finishing with 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals. Prescott is shooting an eye-popping 8-12 from three so far this season.

The Hawks now have a week off before a tough stretch of games that begins with a game at Rider next Monday.