Practice Drills Lead Saint Joseph’s to Buzzer-Beating Win

Saint Joseph’s trailed 65-60 with two minutes left to play, their hopes of victory dwindling in the Big 5 Classic’s third-place game. From there, sophomore guard Deuce Jones II took over, scoring the Hawks’ last ten points on the way to a buzzer-beating three-point shot that sent them home victorious 70-69. Jones said that the winning shot came about because of shooting and breathing drills the Hawks practice.

“[Assistant] Coach Bino [Ranson]: every single practice we do three-two-one, get it off before the one,” Jones said. “And then [head] coach [Steve] Donahue giving me good breathing exercises, slow myself down, and then I just stayed poised… as soon as it left my hand I knew it was good.”

Center Justice Ajogbor, who finished with a 10 point, 11 rebound double-double and added two steals and three blocks, also praised Saint Joseph’s coaching for how they helped his performance.

“We work on this drill after practice everyday, it’s called perfect defense. The objective is to stop the other team from scoring,” Ajogbor said. “When the game’s close in my end I’m like ‘we do this every single day.’ It just felt like ‘okay, I’ve just got to lock into what we do in practice and just play defense as a team.’” 

Ajogbor shot a perfect 2-for-2 from the field and made all six of his free throw attempts, a rare statline for a 6-foot-10 center… and a pivotal one in the game the Hawks won by just one point. He said in a post-practice drill the Hawks run, each player has to shoot eight free throws.

Deuce Jones II is the Guy

The out-of-conference schedule gives coaches a chance to learn their team’s characteristics heading into the grind of conference play. What does interim coach Steve Donahue, who took over in September after previous head coach Billy Lange departed for the New York Knicks, know about his team now?

“It’s pretty apparent to me that Deuce Jones is the guy who should get the ball at the end of the game. That’s a great characteristic to have, not a lot of guys are like that. He’s genuinely like that,” Donahue said. I think if someone messed up their coverage on Temple and someone slipped, he would’ve hit them with a pass, but he also has the confidence to say ‘I’m going to shoot this and make it.’”

Jones won the Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year award at La Salle last season after averaging 12.5 points per game. Donahue said his young star still needs to realize just how good of a player he is, and that three-point shooting can help unlock that level of his game.

“He’s a great three-point shooter, he just doesn’t realize it yet,” Donahue said. “He’s so competitive, he’s like a boxer. He just wants to attack, attack, attack. Trying to grow his game a little bit and be a little strategic in his approach sometimes because if the defense does that [goes under, cutting off his lane to the basket], you’re a great shooter. Make them pay.”