SJU Welcomes Lafayette To Hagan Arena

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The St. Joseph's University Hawks will be home on Thursday night to host Lafayette.

The Hawks are coming off an 81-72 loss on the road against Illinois State last time out on Sunday. The defeat dropped St. Joe's to 5-5 on the season. Head coach Phil Martelli talks about the development of his team ten games into the season.

"I have no questions about the group as a whole," Martelli tells KYW Newsradio. "They allow us to coach them, they give every effort to improve. But, as many have said before me, you are what your record says that you are. So 5-5 is average and we need to strive to do better than that, individually and collectively."

Listen to the entire interview with St. Joe's head coach Phil Martelli

The Hawks are being led by junior guard Shavar Newkirk and his 20.9 points per game. Sophomore guard Lamarr Kimble is pitching in 14.3 points a night.

Martelli talks about the strength of his squad going forward.

"I think the biggest strength that we have is we haven't gotten ourselves balanced yet," Martelli says. "I think it's there, I know it's there. Individual players have to improve, we have to improve as a balanced group in terms of, offensively, scoring the ball. We have to get to a situation where we can score 72 points a game, and we have to get balanced defensively."

The Hawks will take on a Lafayette team on Thursday that is 4-6. The Leopards are coming off a 104-67 win over Division III Moravian on Monday night. Lafayette is coached by Philadelphia native Fran O'Hanlon.

"His team plays a beautiful style of basketball," Martelli says. "They're very balanced, they're all willing to take a shot, they're all willing to make a play for another player. They show you a variety of defenses."

St. Joe's has dominated the all-time series with the Leopards, winning 32 of the 40 match-ups. The two schools haven't met since November 27th, 2006. The Hawks won that game, 81-73.

Thursday night's game at Hagan Arena gets underway at 7:00 p.m.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattLeonKYW.