It’s all about timing.

The Saint Louis University men’s basketball team may be peaking at the right time. The Billikens extended their winning streak to three games with a 72-63 win over the DePaul Blue Demons Tuesday night in Allstate Arena in Chicago.

The win came on the heels of a 56-50 victory over Louisville in the final Conference USA home game of the season for SLU.

The Billikens dominated the early moments of the first half and built a 14-6 lead seven minutes into the game. Junior guard Marque Perry paced SLU during the run with nine points.

The Blue Demons countered with a brief 6-0 run and gained a 24-23 lead. SLU rebounded and ended the half on an 11-6 run and led 34-30 at the intermission. Perry led SLU with 13 points. Center Lance Williams led DePaul with 14 points in the first half.

DePaul gained control in the second half and built a 51-46 lead. Perry again paced the Billikens and initiated a 10-2 run with a jumper. The Billikens had a 56-53 lead and would never trail after that point. Another dry spell for the Blue Demons allowed SLU’s lead to balloon, as a free throw from Josh Fisher gave SLU a 64-55 lead.

The Billikens cruised to a 72-63 win.

Perry tied a career high with 27 points in the game that marked a homecoming for the Chicago native. Edwin was SLU’s second-leading scorer with eight points. Forward Andre Brown led DePaul with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Williams added 17 points and 11 boards.

Even though they were out-rebounded 42-33, the Billikens held the Blue Demons to 38 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from behind the arc.

Perry and Edwin tag-teamed the Louisville defense Friday night to knock off the Cardinals and slide into fourth place of C-USA’s American Division.

“We competed at a high level, which you need to do against a relentless pressing team like Louisville,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “They hurt us in the second half with the press, but we didn’t get discouraged despite our mistakes.”

The Bills traded points with the Cards early in the first half, but blazed ahead later in the half and the defense, anchored by sophomore Chris Sloan, held Louisville scoreless for nearly seven minutes, allowing the Cards to score just 17 points.

“We did well early in the game,” Romar said. “There’s nobody with a bigger heart in Conference USA than Chris Sloan. He did a heck of a job gaurding Gaines. He’s taller than Reece, but if not for him guarding (Gaines), we might have come up short.”

With less than two minutes remaining in the half, Sloan was fouled on a layup and sank the free-throw to complete the three-point play to nudge the Bills to a 27-14 lead, their largest of the night.

Louisville answered back with a trey from Reece Gaines, cutting the Bills lead to 10 points. But with less than a minute left to play, Kenny Brown was sent to the line and netted a pair of free throws to end the half with the Billikens up 29-17.

The Cards slowed the Billikens at the start of the second half, holding the Bills to just one basket in almost four minutes.

The Bills’ offense tried to heat things up early in the half, but it was the Cardinals who caught fire early on and cut the Bills lead to just four points with 10 minutes left in the half.

Perry brought SLU’s offense back to life when he hit a picture-perfect jumper in the paint. Chris Braun pulled down the rebound from Louisville’s Luke Whitehead missed jumper and put the ball back into the hands of the Billikens, allowing Edwin to nail a shot just before Louisville called for time out.

The Bills couldn’t keep the ball rolling after the timeout and allowed Louisville to narrow the gap to three points with 6:38 remaining.

“Louisville went on a run, and we may have been tired, but we had to suck it up, it was time to play,” Perry said.

Perry and Edwin took control of the offense in the last few minutes of the half and the Billiken defense managed to keep the ball out of Gaines’ hot hands.

“Gaines is their man. We had to limit his touch on the ball and limit his scoring. Josh Fisher, Jason Edwin, Drew Diener, and Chris Sloan did a great job of that,” Perry said. “We still had to contain others besides Gaines, because if we focus on just Gaines, the others would be open to score.”

Ten of the Bills’ last 12 points came from free throws late in the half from Perry, Edwin and Josh Fisher. Gaines tried to start a Louisville rally with a few minutes left to play and put Louisville in the position to win the game, but Sloan drained a key basket with 26 seconds left to help secure the Bills’ lead.

Braun put the nail in the coffin by sinking a pair of free throws with five ticks left on the clock and secured the win for the Bills.

Louisville shot 32.7 percent from the field for the game and 29.4 percent from beyond the three-point arc.

The Cards committed 16 turnovers and only Gaines and Bryant managed double figures.

The Billikens shot 38.6 percent from the field and shot 33.3 percent from three-point range and turned the ball over 17 times.

Perry and Edwin led the Bills in scoring with 16 and 11 points, respectively, while Sloan and Fisher chipped in eight points apiece. Braun led the team in rebounds with six.

Saturday, the Bills will wrap up the regular season with the final conference game at Tulane.

The Bills have won five of the last six meetings with the Green Wave and are 10-9 in the overall series.

After the game with Tulane, the Bills will head into the conference tournament in Cincinnati starting March 6.