A strong second half helped the Pirates defeat the St. Joseph's Hawks 78-70 to advance to the championship game of the Charleston Classic. The win improves the Hall's record to 3-0.
Trailing St. Joe's by seven at the half, the Pirates controlled play for most of the second half and outscored the Hawks 46-31.
Senior Jordan Theodore led the Hall with 18 points while adding 10 assists for his first double-double of the season. Senior Herb Pope recorded his third straight double-double of the year with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Sophomore Fuquan Edwin scored in double figures for the second straight game with 17 while freshman Aaron Cosby added 13 points for the most he has scored as a Pirate. The bench for the Pirates scored 10 points after not scoring a single point against VCU.
The biggest performance of the game however, came from the Hawks junior guard Carl Jones. Jones set a new tournament record with 38 points on 12-17 shooting including 4-6 from beyond the arc. The loss is St. Joseph's first of the year dropping them to 2-1.
The Hall took their first lead of the game, 49-47, with 14:32 reaming in the game on a three pointer from Cosby. With both teams trading baskets for the next few minutes, Pope made a lay-up apart of an 8-0 run to put the Hall ahead for good.
Theodore gave the Pirates their biggest lead of the game at 68-59 with a jumper with 5:14 to go in the game. The Hawks would close within five at 68-63 but could not close the gap.
The Pirates will take on the Northwestern Wildcats Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. in the Charleston Classic championship.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at Stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
