It’s hard to win on the road without your team leader.
The Saint Louis University Billikens quickly realized this Tuesday night as they suffered a 77-49 pummeling at the hands of Charlotte. The Billikens were without their leading scorer in Marque Perry, who has been plagued with headaches after suffering a head-to-head collision during Saturday’s game against Marquette. The junior point-guard’s absence was obvious as the 49ers (9-6, 3-1) ran away with the game in the second-half in front of a crowd of 6,468.
“It makes it a lot tougher, being on the road. Still, that was an unacceptable performance. That was not our team out there tonight,” coach Lorenzo Romar said.
The Billikens (8-9, 2-2) struggled from the field shooting well below their season average. SLU shot a mere 35 percent from the field and made only 4-17 shots behind the three-point line. The Bills also failed to take care of the ball, which led to 18 turnovers.
The Billikens jumped out to an early lead as sophomore Jason Edwin drilled a three-point shot to begin the game. That was the last lead SLU would enjoy. The 49ers then scored eight unanswered points. They began the game making their first five shots. Forward Curtis Nash sparked the 49ers early attack scoring 10 points in the game’s first eight minutes.
Charlotte seemingly had the game under control for the rest of the game. Edwin kept the Bills in the game early after scoring six points in the first few minutes. He finished with a game-high 20 points.
Senior forward Cam Stephens electrified his Charlotte team with a power slam-dunk off a pass from senior Demon Brown with 3:42 remaining in the half. The bucket put the 49ers up 25-21 and they never looked back.
Junior Drew Diener filled in for Perry at the guard position and held Jobey Thomas to six first-half points. Thomas eventually broke free and drilled two consecutive three-pointers to close out the first half. Charlotte went on a 12-2 run to close out the half. The Billikens found themselves trailing 35-23.
The deficit didn’t improve for SLU in the second half. Charlotte picked up where they had left off. They began the half with a 12-5 run and the Bills soon found themselves down 47-28. Charlotte’s starting five proved too powerful for the short-handed Billikens. Four 49ers scored in double digits. Stephens scored 14 points and grabbed 16 boards.
The Billikens were forced to rely on Edwin and junior Kenny Brown to step against Charlotte’s big guns. Their effort was not enough for the victory, but it was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal performance.
“Kenny Brown went out there tonight and battled for us,” Romar said.
Brown scored eight points and brought down 11 rebounds.
The fierce shooting of Demon Brown and Thomas along with the power play of Stephens wore down the young Billikens as the deficit grew to 30 points with 1:28 remaining.
Saturday night in Milwaukee was much of the same: A hot start from Edwin and inconsistent play on both ends of the ball. Marquette pulled away in the final two minutes to dismiss the Billikens 61-53 before a rowdy crowd of 15,128 at the Bradley Center.
“We knew we would come in here and have a very tough basketball game,” said Romar. “But I’m proud of my guys. They came out on the road, competed, and weren’t intimidated at all despite not coming out with the victory.”
Edwin scored seven of the Bills first 10 points on his way to a team high 16 points. SLU’s defense held Marquette to nearly 20 points below their season average. It was the offense, however, that never seemed to show up. The Bills shot 25 percent from the three-point line for the game and an abysmal 16.7 percent from the free-throw line in the second half.
After Perry missed two free throws with 1:45 left in the game, Edwin won a rebounding battle below the boards and tipped in his own miss to bring the Bills within two at 55-53. SLU would get no closer, however. Diener’s cousin Travis, a freshman at MU, hit a three with under a minute to go. After a SLU turnover, the Golden Eagles made their free throws to put the game out of reach.
Marquette seemed determined not to lose on a night when they honored the 1977 NCAA Championship team. A halftime ceremony introduced the past greats, and paid tribute to their inspirational leader and coach, the late Al McGuire.
The Billikens put together an impressive home victory against Conference USA rival DePaul on Dec. 8. SLU defeated the Blue Demons 92-74. Diener posted 18 points in the victory. Perry added 11 and tallied six assists. Just three days earlier, the Billikens squeaked by the Houston Cougars at Savvis Center with a 67-64 victory.
The Billikens fell to California, Dayton and Southwest Missouri State over the holidays. SLU posted convincing victories over Denver, Southeast Missouri State, Furman and thrilling 71-70 home win over Washington on Dec. 29 on a last-second three from Ross Varner. His game-winning shot came before 41 family members who were in attendance
SLU will try to end to their two-game losing streak on Saturday as they face East Carolina at 1 p.m. at Savvis Center.
