FanHouse AhmedNivins

Saint Joseph's has been so hot of late that it was going to take a superlative performance to stop their six game winning streak. Enter Shawn James. The Duquesne forward recorded a triple-double and the Dukes knocked off the Hawks 102-88 to create more uncertainty in the Atlantic 10.

James scored 17 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked an amazing 10 shots to record the first triple-double in Duquesne history. As strong as James played, however, he must share credit for the victory with coach Ron Everhart. The Hawks were coming off an emotional game Monday against Villanova and were without Ahmed Nivins, who hurt his ankle in the win. Everhart had his team in attack mode from the tip, pressing and making St. Joe's work harder than they might have liked during their second game in three nights.

The loss knocks St. Joe's out of a tie for first with Xavier in the league in advance of their game on Sunday. It also comes on the latest night to illustrate how tight the league race is going to be in the A-10. Dayton returned to the win column with a 69-64 home win over Charlotte. The Flyers won despite playing poorly once again. They were bailed out by nine late points from Brian Roberts and a miserable shooting night from Leemire Goldwire.

Wins over big-time nonconference opponents earned teams like Dayton and Rhode Island a lot of headlines in the first two months of the season. Each flew to the top of the RPI and into the Top 25 before getting cooled off by A-10 opposition. The Saint Joseph's Hawks, on the other hand, lost to teams big (Gonzaga) and small (Holy Cross) while navigating their way through a challenging early schedule. Once league play started, though, they've been a bear.

Three road wins, including last night's 61-59 victory at GW, highlight a 5-1 start that has them tied for the league lead and thinking about dancing for the first time since 2004. The reasons for their success are very similar to the reasons for co-leader Xavier's. They are well rounded team that does everything well.

Pat Calathes scores 18 points and grabs eight rebounds a game, throwing in a flair for the dramatic as well. His shots have beaten Temple and GW in the last two games and his 45% three-point shooting stretches defenses beyond their limit. Ahmed Nivins controls the paint and scores 14.5 a night on 63% shooting. Iowa State transfer Tasheed Carr missed four games with injury but returned last night with six assists. That's what the point guard's averaging per game, in addition to 11 points and five rebounds.

Day one of the Atlantic 10's conference season was a good one. So good, in fact, that they didn't even let the start of league play stop them from knocking off another ACC school. Charlotte went into Clemson and whipped the Tigers 82-72 to even their record against the conference to 2-2 on the season. While that's a good thing for the A-10 and the Niners, it's a bad thing for those of us who wrote that Charlotte's inconsistency has made them a little disappointing this season. At least we saved ourselves by pointing out Leemire Goldwire's skills. He had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the upset.

On the league front, there was a dandy of an opener in Dayton where the #22 Flyers played host to #20 Rhode Island in a thriller. The Rams cut a 13-point Dayton lead to four with 90 seconds to play but Marcus Johnson nailed a three on the next trip downcourt and the home team escaped 92-83. Brian Roberts was also huge down the stretch for Dayton. Despite the full attention of the Ram defense that forced him into seven turnovers, Roberts scored nine points in the final two and a half minutes to keep his team in front.

That defense was a key for Rhode Island all night. They forced 18 turnovers overall but it came with a downside.