It has been the thorn in the sides of the Saint Louis University men’s basketball team so far this season: They can’t put teams away. They haven’t shown a killer instinct.
Kansas State sent the Bills to their second straight defeat with two, clutch free throws in the waning moments of last nights game, winning 69-68, in Manhattan, Kan.
For the third time in five game, the Billikens gave up a double-digit lead.
With their record now at 3-2, the Billikens look back and wonder how they let this one slip away.
The Bills started out promising, taking a 14-4 lead six minutes into the first half. Chris Heinrich, Justin Love, and Marque Perry all had buckets as the Bills took control early.
The Wildcats went on a run of their own, cutting the deficit to two on a three pointer in Perry’s eye with 6:19 left in the half, leaving the score at 23-21.
Love pushed the Billiken lead to five by drilling one of his four first half three pointers from the wing.
After a defensive stop, Love fed Andrew Lattimer with a nice pass under the basket to allow the big Australian an easy deuce, putting the score at 28-21.
After a series of fouls against the Wildcats, the Billikens hit two of their five free throws, to push their lead to nine.
The Billikens closed out the final two minutes with an eight to three run, extending the lead to 12, 42-30.
Love finished his impressive first half with 19 points and five rebounds.
The second half opened to a Wildcat three-point basket. Love answered back with one of two free throws.
After a pair of Kansas State free throws, Justin Tatum dunked home a missed jumper, pushing the lead back to 10.
As Kansas began to chip away at the lead, the Billikens went into a funk.
They didn’t score for two and a half minutes.
Love revitalized the snoozing Bills, if only for a moment, with a three pointer from the wing, pushing the lead back to 13.
Love had 29 points midway through the second half.
SLU fell back into a quagmire and before they knew it, Kansas State had taken the lead, 56-55 with just over five minutes remaining.
Perry single-handily retook the lead by hitting two tough jumpers in a row, putting the Bills up 60-58.
Perry then held his own on the defensive end by causing a turnover that led to a Maurice Jeffers lay up. Jeffers then put in another lay up to push the Billiken lead to five, with two and a half minutes left to play.
After Chris Braun traveled and a missed trey by Jeffers, the Wildcats were within one, with 1:21 to go.
Perry hit one of two free throws to push the lead to two, but Kansas State answered back with two free throws, giving them the lead, 67-66, with 41.3 seconds remaining.
With 23.5 seconds left to play, Love answered back with a tough baseline jumper, giving the Billikens the lead.
After a Kansas State time-out the Wildcats threw up and missed two, long three-point jumpers. KSU pulled down another rebound close to the bucket.
As Justin Tatum pulled down the board, the ball was poked loose and KSU recovered.
As the Wildcat put up the shot up, the referee called a questionable foul on Tatum, sending KSU to the line with two seconds left on the clock.
KSU hit both of their free throws and defended the inbound pass as the clock expired.
The Billikens went home with a tough defeat.
“We played well enough to win,” said head coach Lorenzo Romar during the KMOX postgame radio show. “We controlled the game until the end.”
Love finished the game with 31 points, seven rebounds, two steals and two assists.
He went 10-12 from the foul line and was the only Billiken to score in double digits.
Tatum had 10 rebounds and eight points but struggled from the field, shooting 3-9.
Jeffers and Heinrich both put in seven.
“So many unforced turnovers. On the road you have to be mistake free or you put the game in their (the home team’s) hands,” Romar said. “We’ll win this type of game later in the year.”
