Seven of nine field goals; six rebounds; 17 points.
Last year, most Billiken basketball fans would think that that box-score line would have belonged to Justin Love. And while Love will still put up similar numbers, fans will have to start associating that line with center Chris Heinrich.
Heinrich paced the Billikens with 17 points and six rebounds, leading them to a 93-77 exhibition victory over NBC Thunder last night at the Kiel Center.
“The past two games we played pretty well,” said Heinrich, referring to the forwards’ play.
Forward Matt Baniak also added 10 points and six rebounds in a Billiken demonstration on converting layups and dunks. The Bills scored 56 points in the paint, more than half of their total for the game.
“They’re our go-to guys,” senior Troy Robertson said. “When you shoot layups, you’re going to get a good percentage like they did.”
“They did an outstanding job,” Coach Lorenzo Romar said.
Heinrich sparked the Bills early. He scored the first two buckets of the game for SLU on short turnarounds. But the Billikens fell behind early in the first half. NBC Thunder went up 11-6 on a jumper by Ronnie Winbush with 16:10 to go in the half.
The Thunder held the lead until the 8:19 mark of the half. Robertson tipped in a Marque Perry miss, to give SLU a 25-24 advantage. The basket came during an 18-4 run, which ended up putting the Bills ahead 36-28.
In the second half, the Thunder crawled back to trim the SLU lead to 56-52 on a basket by Drake Charles with 14:04 to play in regulation. A monstrous Love dunk restored SLU’s double-digit lead to 66-55 with just over 10 minutes to play.
The closest NBC Thunder got from there was seven points.
Love scored 16 points and grabbed seven boards. Dave Fergerson chipped in 14 points.
SLU won despite shooting three for 16 from beyond the three-point line, showing that the Billikens no longer need to rely on the outside shot.
NBC Thunder posed some tougher problems for SLU than the California All-Stars did. The Thunder were more organized, tougher defensively and bigger. But John Redden and the wingmen countered those strengths.
Redden and the wingmen constantly drove the lane on offense and then either fed the ball to the big guys and banked in layups.
And on defense, the Bills’ big men had to come out and guard Thunder’s forwards on the perimeter.
“Our wingmen did a good job of penetrating and getting in the paint,” Romar said.
Romar particularly noted the improvement in taking care of the ball.
“That’s something we worked hard on all week,” Romar said. “We made some strides in the turnover department.”
SLU now gears up for the regular season. This Saturday at 8:30 p.m. the Billikens play Air Force at the Kiel Center in the Earth Grains Classic.
On Sunday, the Alabama Crimson Tide rolls into town for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off.
“(I’m) really, really looking forward to this weekend,” Romar said.
But, Romar noted, “It’s not going to be an easy weekend.”
