Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
In his final season at Penn, Steve Donahue’s Quakers finished 0-3 in the Big 5, losing to Drexel in the fifth-place game of the 2024 Big 5 Classic. Now, as the head coach of back-to-back Big 5 champion St. Joseph’s, Donahue is off to a 1-0 start in Big 5 pod play with a 76-65 win over Drexel at Hagan Arena Saturday afternoon. The Hawks (2-0) went on an extended 16-5 run over the final five minutes and 36 seconds to push past the Dragons (1-1). Deuce Jones II led all scorers off the Hawks’ bench, dropping a career-high 29 points. Dasear Haskins added 15 for the Hawks in the win. Four Dragons reached double digits in the loss, including a 12-point, 11-rebound performance from Villiam Garcia Adsten. Deuce dominates Jones, who was limited to two points in the Hawks’ opening 85-76 win over Lafayette on Monday night, was the main contributor against the Dragons. The sophomore guard went 7 of 11 from the floor, including 3-for-3 from deep. Jones also shot 12 of 13 attempts from the free-throw line. “Everything was within our offense,” Donahue said. “He made decisions to go to the hole because of how he’s being guarded. It wasn’t pre-determined. And when he does that, he is really good.” » READ MORE: Steve Donahue is ‘committed to winning’ in Year 1 at St. Joe’s and might have the pieces to do it Jones joined the Hawks as a transfer from La Salle, where he was the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year after averaging 12.5 points last season. Jones scored 18 of his 29 in the second half. He finished a layup through contact at the rim and hit the ensuing free throw to extend the Hawks’ lead to eight with two minutes, 54 seconds to play. “First game, I started off slow,” Jones said. “This game, I started off, came off the bench, brought energy, and it was just contagious.” Prior to Saturday, Jones’ career-high scoring performance came against the Hawks. Jones scored 27 to lift the Explorers to a 81-74 victory in Fran Dunphy’s final regular season game at La Salle. Jones has been comfortable coming off the bench for the Hawks. He spent the first 11 games on the Explorers’ bench last season before becoming a regular starter in Dunphy’s backcourt. Jones logged 22 minutes off the bench on Saturday. “It wasn’t nothing new to me,” Jones said. “It was what the coaching staff agreed on, and I agreed with it, and the results came out. Dragon down Drexel held St. Joe’s to 37.9% shooting from the field, recorded eight steals, and had three more rebounds than the Hawks, but the Dragons could not get their offense going. Drexel took a 37-34 lead into halftime, but were outscored, 42-28, in the second, while shooting 24.2 % from the field. The Dragons finished 24 of 69 from the field, while going 8-for-25 from three-point range. “I feel like we had some uncharacteristic misses around the rim and [on] jump shots,” Shane Blakeney said. “We’ve got a lot of talent, so that will shake out as the season goes on. Game two. I think they’ll fall, for a lot of us, moving forward.” Blakeney, a junior guard, finished with 10 points on 3-for-18 shooting. Spiker echoed Blakeney’s sentiment that Saturday’s loss was a blip for the Dragons. “I think we learn every day, in practice and games,” said Drexel coach Zach Spiker. “But was today something of a revelation about our team? No. I like our group, and they know that we’ve got to be better. We’ll rebound back.” Big 5 implications With their win today, the Hawks can win Pod 2 of the Big 5 with a win at Penn on Nov. 19. Donahue spent nine seasons as the head coach at Penn before he was fired at the end of the 2024-25 season. “I loved it,” Donahue said. “I loved that experience, those guys on that side, but my responsibility is to this team to be at my best that night. I think I will be.” If the Hawks can beat the Quakers at the Palestra, St. Joe’s will be back in the first-place game of the Big 5 Classic for the third time in three seasons. » READ MORE: What we know and are still learning about a new NIL initiative being kickstarted at Penn “Billy [Lange] and his staff and the players here have hung two straight banners,” Donahue said. “There’s a level of expectation now. And I feel strongly, I’ve got to do whatever I can to help us hang a third banner.” In the meantime, St. Joe’s will travel to Blacksburg, Va., to face Virginia Tech (1-0) on Wednesday (7 p.m., ACCNX). Drexel, now 0-1 in Pod 2, will host Penn in its second pod game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Nov. 21. The Dragons will be back in action against Colgate (0-2) in Hamilton, N.Y., on Tuesday (5 p.m., ESPN+).
