The building is nice, even if some of the basketball wasn’t, according to Ray Parillo’s take in The Inquirer. Saint Joe’s opened the Hagan Arena, its newly renovated on-campus facility, with a 77-67 overtime victory over Drexel last night in the season-opener for both city teams.

The Dragons missed their first 10 shots and didn’t score from the field for more than five minutes at the start. Neither team shot especially well — the Dragons made just 35.3 percent, while the Hawks connected on 41.7 of their attempts — and they combined for an eye-popping 42 turnovers versus just 30 assists. Drexel actually led by 10 with a little more than 10 minutes to play, but Saint Joe’s battled back and sent it to OT tied at 62 on a Garrett Williamson jumper with 3.5 seconds remaining. In the OT, Todd O’Brien’s jumper gave Saint Joe’s a 69-67 lead, and Darrin Govens followed with a steal, a layup and a pair of free throws to put it away.

Govens led the Hawks with 23 points, but he was just 6 of 17 from the field (35.2 percent). Idris Hilliard had 16 points (he was 10-for-11 from the line), freshman Carl Jones 13 and Williamson 11. Jones, according to The Inquirer, did not start because of an academic issue.

Drexel actually had a 45-34 rebounding edge, with Leon Spencer collecting 12 boards to go with his 16 points. Junior guard Jamie Harris had 20, while freshman Derrick Thomas scored 14, 12 of which came on four 3s.

Both teams return to action Tuesday. Drexel (0-1) has an 8 a.m. tip at Niagara as part of ESPN’s 24-hour marathon, while Saint Joe’s (1-0) osts Holy Cross at the Hagan at the much-more-normal start time of 7 p.m.

UPDATE: Govens also made a big 3 with less than 20 seconds left to tie it at 60, according to CSN Philly, which played up the game’s excitement. That same report also says Drexel’s Spencer and Evan Neisler were having fun talking some trash with the SJU students — at least until Neisler fouled out.

Links: Saint Joe’s over Drexel in OT [The Inquirer]
Exciting opening game for the Hagan [CSNPhilly.com]
Photo credit: [Philly.com]