Owls Fall to National #2 St, Joseph

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – University of St. Joseph senior guard Tyree Mitchell scored a career-best 28 points to lead the #2-ranked Blue Jays to a 97-54 win over Westfield State in a non-conference game at the Calhoun Gymnasium on Monday night.

Westfield (1-8) trailed 45-27 at the half, getting a layup from Brendon Hamilton on an inbounds pass from Gerry McManus a as the buzzer sounded.

St. Joe's (9-0) shot a blistering 7-14 from behind the arc in the first half.  Mitchell was the primary culprit, connecting on 4 of 5 from downtown en route to 19 points at the break.

Joseph Meade and Kumar Brown each had six to lead the Owls in the first half.

The Blue Jays tight man-to-man defense limited the Owls to 11-31 from the floor and 1-5 from behind the arc in the opening stanza.  St. Joe's blocked six shots in the first half and forced nine turnovers from the Owls.

USJ's hot–shooting continued into the second half, connecting eight of their first 12 shots, pushing the lead up to 33 points, 65-32 after a quick 8-0 spurt.  Mitchell's backdoor layup gave USJ a 60-32 with 12 minutes left in the game, followed by a O'Neill three and a Jake Mitchell layup.

After a timeout, both teams substituted liberally for the remainder of the game.

USJ used a 15-3 run early in the first half to build a double-digit lead as the Blue Jays connected on five of their first eight shots from the floor.

The Blue Jays led 40-19 on a Ryan O'Neill 3-pointer to gain their biggest lead of the half at 21 points.

Westfield cut it to 40-23 on Brown's two-handed dunk coming down the middle of the lane, but the Jays responded with a Mitchell trifecta to keep the momentum going their way.

Brown, who transferred to Westfield from USJ, joined Hamilton with 10 points to lead the Owls.  Brown added five rebounds and Hamilton three steals.

O'Neill finished with 17 points, making 5 of 12 from behind the arc. Jonathan Box added 10. Senior point guard Jaycee Martin, a transfer from Division I Sacred Heart, handed out seven assists and had four steals.  

St. Joseph's set a school record by making 17 three pointers in the game.  The Jays were 17-33, better than 51 percent from three point range for the game.

This was the first-ever men's basketball meeting between the two programs.

The upstart Blue Jays program has an interesting backstory.   A women's college until becoming coeducational in 2018, the program made a big splash by hiring former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, who guided the Huskies to three NCAA Division I titles, to start the USJ program.  Calhoun led the Blue Jays through the 2020-21 covid season before retiring and giving way to Glen Miller, his longtime assistant coach at both UConn and USJ.  

Miller is himself a successful collegiate head coach, having led Connecticut College to the D3 final four in 1999, before spending 11 seasons as a head coach in the Ivy League at Brown and Penn. He led USJ to a 26-2 record and a #9 ranking in the nation before a first -round NCAA Tournament loss in 2022.

Westfield has played an incredibly difficult schedule so far this season.

Westfield was playing its second opponent that is nationally-ranked at the time of the meeting this season, having already faced #14 Middlebury.  The Owls opened the season against Keene State, which has since moved into the top 10 in the nation  as well.   

The Owls' eight losses have come against teams that have compiled a 56-5 overall record so far this season.

Westfield will play one more game before the Christmas break, as the Owls travel to UMass-Boston on Thursday.