Minutemen Take Time In Win

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Massachusetts fought through a rough offensive outing to beat St. Joseph’s 68-57 Monday night in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament.

The eighth-ranked Minutemen (25-4) will play host to Thursday night’s championship game against the winner of the semifinal between Temple and Rutgers.

Massachusetts has won the regular-season title the last four years and is bidding for their fourth consecutive tournament title, all at home.

Even the inside game of Marcus Camby and Lou Roe wasn’t its usual self against the Hawks (17-11) as Camby missed his first six shots from the field before scoring all of his nine points in the final 14:41. Roe, the conference’s player of the year, finished with 11 points on 4-for-9 shooting and had 11 rebounds.

Edgar Padilla and Donta Bright led the Minutemen with 12 points each.

Bernard Blunt led the fifthseeded Hawks, whose doubleovertime quarterfinal victory over St. Bonaventure didn’t end until after midnight Monday, with 18 points, while Mark Bass added 12.

The Hawks started the second half with a 9-0 run to take a 33-32 lead, but Massachusetts came back with its own 9-0 run for a 41-33 lead with 14:41 to play.