Billy Lange wanted his St. Joe’s team to be “in discomfort,” and that’s what happened on Monday

About seven minutes into the St. Joseph’s men’s basketball team’s season opener, amid much anticipation, the horn jammed.

It wasn’t the only disruption at Hagan Arena on Monday night. The Hawks trailed Navy 16-7 at the time, after being 14-2 two minutes earlier.

It would have been a fun story if fixing the horn fixed the Hawks offense. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. As Navy opened the second half with an 11-4 run, a veteran fan behind the press row shouted, “Call a timeout, will you!” with coach Billy Lange, and he did.

(That was a coincidence, before anyone had any more ideas, but it was also fair.)

It wasn’t until just before the middle of the second half that St. Joe’s clawed its way to a 47-47 tie before advancing to a 70-63 victory. In the long run the details will be forgotten; and even in the short term, the bigger picture was an enjoyable opening night for all six local men’s teams.

But there were criticisms in the Hawks’ locker room before Central Connecticut State’s visit Friday (7 p.m., ESPN+) — and, of course, before Villanova Visit next Tuesday.

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s finds some late rhythm to win its season opener against Navy

Lange spoke of “three behavioral principles” he wanted his players to work on during the first two weeks of the season: “fight cool,” “you have to figure some things out,” and “feel uncomfortable.”

All three were fulfilled, especially the last one, and after the game Lange had plenty to say about that.

“I don’t want these guys to be weighed down by expectations,” he said, knowing this team is doing well higher expectations from outside than any Hawks team in years. “No matter what game is in front of you, you have to bloody compete and play, and I thought we did it. I really, really do.”

The good parts of the box score were Erik Reynolds II’s game-high 29 points; Xzayvier Brown’s 22, 11 of which came from the free throw line, and the team’s 11 blocks across seven players.

But Lange didn’t ignore the bad parts: Navy’s 14 offensive rebounds, 14-1 edge in second-chance points and 34-18 edge in points in the paint. The Midshipmen also took 21 more field goal attempts than the Hawks.

(If you’re wondering how a team can have exactly one second-chance point, you’re not alone. It looked like it was a Steven Solano free throw after he was fouled while collecting an offensive rebound. St. Joe’s was in the bonus point at the time, so he automatically went to the free throw line.)

» READ MORE: ‘The power of now’: Billy Lange has his best St. Joe’s team yet and expectations are high

At one point, Lange politely directed a question back to the media: “Does anyone know who the youngest team in the Atlantic 10 is?”

There were only three journalists in the room, and not just because all six city teams were playing on Monday night. No one had the immediate answer, but everyone assumed that since Lange asked, the answer was his team.

“We have four juniors and seniors, we have 10 freshmen and sophomores — it’s not close,” he said. “Now I’m not making any excuses because I’d rather have the three guys back that we had (and lost in the) transfer (portal).”

Lange’s point was that despite all the hype about the Hawks being the best team in town to start the season, this game was the reason he hit the brakes every time someone asked him about it.

“We want to win every game by 25 points, that’s the starting point,” he said. “But that can go either way and I was here when that happened. I know what that looks like, I know what the communication is like on the bench.”

This time he saw the communication he wanted. That made the bad parts easier to digest.

» READ MORE: Phil Martelli has a new podcast and it’s not just about basketball: ‘Ripples will come from this’

“You don’t get the expectation and the admiration, and then you think someone comes in here and doesn’t give you everything he has, especially in the opening week of the season,” he said. “Whatever words you want to use – resilience, fortitude, discomfort, whatever words you want to use – you are always looking for moments. You just hope you win when you do it.

Those blocks certainly counted as moments, including two from Rasheer Fleming at key points of the comeback. So did Reynolds, who ended up hitting a pair of threes, and Brown drove so often that he committed nine Navy errors.

“My job is to maintain their trust and not get caught up in what’s going on,” Lange said. “I have to wake them up, but not get caught in them.”

They finally woke up, just in time to make everything right.

» READ MORE: Follow The Inquirer’s full coverage of St. Joseph athletics here!