Noah Fries | staff writer

No. 3 Saint Joseph’s dropped No. 6 Davidson on Friday night with a dominant second-half performance inside PPG Paints Arena. Despite holding a narrow 33-29 lead going into halftime, Saint Joseph’s was able to pull away 70-58 in a final score that was even closer than the game flow suggested.  

With the win, all four of the top seeds advanced to the semifinals of the A10 Championship for just the third time since 2006 and the first time since 2023.  

From the first possessions of the game, Saint Joseph center Justice Ajogbor made his presence known. Ajogbor capitalized on the pick-and-roll several times early in the game, notching 6 points by the first media timeout of the game.  

Ajogbor would finish with 18 points on 80% shooting from the field along with five rebounds. 

“I always think about, I’ll do what it might take to win,” Ajogbor said. “And that’s how I think about when I play basketball. If my team is passing me the ball, then I’m gonna play my ball.”  

Saint Joseph’s committed to running full-court defensive pressure throughout the duration of the game that gave Davidson fits — not necessarily in the form of turnovers, but with Davidson having to run offensive sets with less than 20 seconds on the shot clock almost every time down the floor. 

Davidson would go on three different scoreless spells that would last longer than four minutes, with the most crucial coming in the second half. Saint Joseph’s would capitalize with a 12-2 extended run that Davidson would be unable to come back from. 

“I think our defense is always our cornerstone,” Saint Joseph’s Head Coach Steve Donahue said. “We don’t foul — we really guard and make it difficult [for opponents]. I thought there were stretches in that game that we took Davidson out of what they wanted to do.” 

Late in the second half, Saint Joseph’s guard Jaiden Glover-Toscano hit a three-pointer that would push the lead to 21, the largest lead of the night. Glover-Toscano would end the night with a game-high 19 points, shooting 5-for-11 from the field and 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.  

Davidson and Saint Joseph’s split the season series, with both teams tallying wins on their home floors. Despite the largest margin of victory between these two teams this season being just six points, Saint Joseph’s would notch a 12-point victory on the neutral floor.  

Guard Josh Scovens led Davidson with 15 points while also leading the team in rebounds with nine. Guard Roberts Blums tallied 13 points off the bench, with nine of those points coming from 3-point land.   

Saint Joseph’s will face a quick turnaround, having to battle No. 2 VCU at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, just 17 hours after the final buzzer sounded against Davidson.  

Noah Fries can be reached at friesn@duq.edu