It would have been real easy for SLU to be flat on Wednesday night against UMass. They just played maybe the worst 14 minutes of their season at George Washington on Saturday, scoring only one field goal in that stretch. Chaifetz Arena was not even half full thanks to the Ice-pocalypse in St. Louis. But to their credit, the Billikens came out energized, played strong defense for the full 40 minutes, and came away with a 69-53 win over a team that was in the top half of the Atlantic 10.
SLU's win was fueled by their effort on the defensive end. Apparently UMass Coach Derek Kellogg had watched the tape of the Billikens against Rhode Island, because his game plan looked to be the same. URI beat SLU by letting their top man, Delroy James, break down SLU defenders one on one. UMass tried the same thing with their top player, Senior guard Anthony Gurley, but Gurley did not have the same success. Sure, Gurley scored a game-high 19 points, but it took him 23 shot attempts to do it. The Billikens made him earn every point he scored.
The key to SLU's defense was the switching off of screens. The switches were quick and the UMass players seemed surprised that there was a defender there when they got the ball. This defensive effort frustrated the Minutemen all night, and led to them getting a little chippy at the end of the game. UMass was hit with two technical fouls, and a flagrant foul with an ejection in the waning minutes.
On the offensive side of the ball, SLU did just enough to get by. They shot the ball just well enough from three point range so that the Minutemen defenders had to respect the outside shot. This kept the lane open for some interior passing. SLU attempted 32 three pointers, making 10 of those. Bob Ramsey reported after the game on 101.1 ESPN, that the 32 three-point attempts were the most since Scott Highmark, Erwin Claggett, and H Waldman jacked up 39 in a game.
They key stat of the game was assist-to-turnover ratio. SLU was very protective of the ball and dished out 17 assists to only 7 turnovers. UMass, on the other hand, had only 6 assists to go with 13 turnovers. The Billikens also did well at the free throw line, something they do not typically do, shooting 77.8% (17-22).
The win puts SLU at 11th place in the Atlantic 10, three games ahead of 13th place (which does not make the conference tournament) and one game back of 8th place (which would host a first round game).
The Billikens (8-13, 3-5) travel to Cincinnati to play Xavier (15-6, 7-1) on Saturday at 10:00 AM CST. Xavier will be chomping at the bit to play after their 66-62 loss at Charlotte on Wednesday night. The Musketeers have won 36 straight A-10 games at the Cintas Center, and are led by conference player-of-the-year candidate, Junior Tu Holloway (21.1 PPG).
BILLIKENS PLAYER OF THE GAME
It is nice that this is not an easy decision. SLU had four players in double figures. Kyle Cassity (11), Rob Loe (10) and Cody Ellis (10), joined my player of the game, Mike McCall (17). McCall gets the nod for me because of the fact that he did not turn the ball over. He is a freshman running the point, played 35 minutes, and only had 3 turnovers.
MINUTEMEN PLAYER OF THE GAME
Senior guard Anthony Gurley was really all the Minutemen had. He finished with a game high 19 points.
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