The Saint Louis University women’s basketball team hasn’t had much luck in close games this year. Of the five contests that have been decided by five points or less, the Bills were 0-5. Their luck changed on Monday night.
The Billikens picked up a 56-52 nail-biting victory over the Louisville Cardinals at the Bauman-Eberhardt Athletic Center on Monday, improving their record to 10-12 overall and 3-8 in Conference USA.
“Winning a close game was really important,” said coach Jill Pizzotti. “We’ve had a lot of close games this year. Tonight, we combined execution and hard work.”
The Bills got off to a quick start and led 14-4 five minutes into the game. Kara Wile hit two treys, and April McKinney notched four points during the run.
The Bills continued their mastery of the Cardinals throughout the first half. SLU stretched the lead to 20-9 after a steal and 3-point play from Lakia Jones.
The Billikens never let up. Baskets from Melissa Oliver and Christan Shelton and three-pointers from Harmonie King and Mandy Lueking pushed the Bills lead to 30-15.
The Bills kept up their strong defensive effort and led 34-17 at halftime.
SLU used balanced scoring to build their lead. Seven of the eight Bills who saw action in the half scored. Shelton paced SLU with seven points.
Louisville came out strong after the break. The Cardinals opened with a 12-5 run in the first five minutes of the half. Louisville cut the lead to 39-31 two minutes later.
The Bills pushed the lead to 50-38 with seven minutes left in the game. But Louisville continued to chip away at SLU’s lead.
The Cardinals went on an 11-4 run and trailed 54-49 with 1:30 left in the contest. Louisville’s Katie Smith hit a trey to cut SLU’s lead to 54-52 with 38 seconds left.
SLU turned the ball over but held Louisville scoreless on the next possession. Lueking was fouled with 12 seconds left and iced the win with a pair of free throws.
The Bills balanced attack continued: eight of the nine Billikens who played scored. Bridgett Beckmann led SLU with 12 points and Mandy Lueking added 10.
Lueking said, “It shows how well we’ve played the last few games. Hopefully, we can build our confidence.”
Shelton added, “It shows that we can win the close games.”
“Pressure defense was the key to the game. We didn’t want them to come down and set up. We wanted them to scramble and not be able to run what they wanted,” Pizzotti said.
“When you execute the way we did today, you’re really proud of the kids. When they’ve worked as hard as they have, you want to see them get rewarded,” Pizzotti stated.
The Bills rebounded from a close loss to Cincinnati, 55-54, on Sunday, Feb. 5.
Both teams played hard in the first half and the contest went back and forth. Neither team led by more than five points in the half. SLU led at halftime, 28-27. The Bills shot 52 percent from the field and 75 percent from behind the arc in the half, while holding Cincinnati to 37 percent shooting from the field.
The second half continued the way the first half ended. The Bearcats went on a 10-2 run to open a 37-30 run five minutes into the half.
Cincinnati built their lead to 10 three minutes later, but SLU started to chisel away at the Bearcats’ lead.
The Bills tied the game on a Beckmann hoop with just under three minutes left in the game. Cincinnati regained the lead, but Lueking tied it at 54-54 with 21 seconds left.
Cincinnati’s Nikki Groeber was fouled with 13 seconds left. She missed the first free throw, but hit the second. Oliver took the final jumper for SLU from 16 feet that bounced of the rim as time expired.
“I never questioned our effort, but our execution wasn’t as good as it needed to be,” Pizzotti said.
