PHILADELPHIA -- All season long the talk surrounding the men's basketball team has been the play of Ed Fogell. During Saturday's game at St. Joseph's, with Fogell not producing offensively, the men's basketball team looked to its guards to pick up the slack.

Behind the play of Freddie Barnes and Monroe Brown, Penn State continued its recent streak with a 61-53 victory at the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

The win was the Lions' sixth in a row, improving their record to 16-5. The team is now 9-3 in Atlantic 10 conference play. St. Joe's dropped to 5-16 overall, and 3-10 in the league.

"Obviously (Barnes and Brown) gave us a lift we needed," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "I was happy to have Monie sticking them. St. Joe's did a great job with the defensive tempo. (That) defense left opportunities for our guards."

With the Hawks' box-and-one defense making things almost non-existent inside for Penn State's offense, Barnes and Brown scored 19 and 14 points, respectively. Barnes was 5-of-8 from the field, including three 3-pointers, and Brown finished 4-of-6 with two treys.

In a six-minute stretch in the first half, the backcourt duo exhibited their knack for hitting outside.

Brown started by hitting a 20-foot jumper from the right side. Undaunted, St. Joe's guard Chris Gardler came right back and hit a 3-pointer of his own. Back down the court, Barnes launched a trey, all in a 1:30 span.

At the 10:16 mark Barnes started machine-gunning again. His 3-pointer from the top of the key was matched by Hawks' guard Ray Washington. Brown ended the flurry with a 20-footer from the left side.

"We had to (shoot it)," Brown said. "Hitting the outside shot kept us in the game."

And with Brown making a 16-foot jump shot with a minute remaining until the half, the Lions had their biggest lead, 27-21.

Last Saturday at Rec Hall, the Hawks got into a running fest with Penn State and got clobbered, 92-72. On Saturday the team felt it needed to drastically alter its gameplan to have a chance.

"We felt if we kept it in the 50's, we had a chance," St. Joe's coach Jim Boyle said. "The margin of error is tighter and there's a better chance to pull an upset."

So throughout the game, St. Joe's held the ball and often worked the shot clock to single digits before looking for a shot. The strategy worked for the most part, especially in the first half. Just as the buzzer sounded before intermission, Gardler shot a 3-pointer that would have cut the lead to one point.

In the second half, with St. Joe's defense only allowing Fogell three points (he finished with four), Penn State went back to the play of its guards with Barnes scoring 13 points in the second half.

The Lions opened up their biggest lead of 11 points after James Barnes (12 points) contributed a layup in the lane. Penn State shot 59 percent in the second half. The rest of the way it was Penn State holding the Hawks off from the foul line with Barnes hitting 6-of-7 and Brown going 4-for-4 in the final 1:30.

"They've been playing like this all year, so we were concerned and felt we had to cash in on the opportunities. We're not a pressing team so it was important for us to get good opportunities," Parkhill said.

"They took a lot of time off the clock," Brown said. "We worked the ball very well."