<em>Basketball:</em> St. Joe's Hawks Hoping to Turn Things Around
PH ILADELPHIA (CBS)- St. Joe's has dropped five straight games after falling on Wednesday night, at home, to Rhode Island, 64-59.
The Hawks are now 5-13 on the season as they get ready for Saturday's Big 5 battle with Penn, at the Palestra.
Sophomore guard Carl Jones continues to excel offensively for the Hawks, scoring 25 in the loss to the Rams. Head coach Phil Martelli talks about the development of Jones' overall game:
"There are certainly stretches of really improved play, and we continue to be optimistic. One of the things that we want to do is, we want to start to move him off the ball and let us bring the ball to him rather than him bring the ball to the offensive zone."
Jones is averaging 17.8 points per game this season. As they prepare for the Quakers, Martelli says, despite their struggles the Hawks have to stay in the right frame of mind.
"We're going to have to believe that good things are going to happen for us," he told KYW Newsradio today. "Certainly when you get into a rut, the way that we are in that rut, any number of things can come up."
Hear the entire Phil Martelli interview in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
Martelli says they have to focus all their energy the next couple of days on the Quakers.
"We cannot play Saturday night's game prior to getting to the Palestra, but we can prepare to play Saturday night's game. And we have to make sure that our preparation is airtight," Martelli said.
The Hawks lost their only other Big 5 game to date this season to Villanova, falling 71-60.
Reported by Matt Leon, KYW Newsradio 1060.
