What difference can two tenths of a second make?

Last night, two tenths of a second was the difference between overtime in Cincinnati and an early flight back to St. Louis.

The Billikens had the opportunity to come back from a 48-44 deficit with just a few seconds left on the clock. Victory was within the Bills’ grasp when Marque Perry hit Chris Braun with a pass from nearly half court at the top of the three-point arc. Braun took one dribble as he turned and swished a perfect three-point field goal from almost NBA range to close Tulane’s lead to one point. The ball passed through the bottom of the net with 3.8 seconds left on the clock.

Or did it?

A time out was called within the blink of an eye. The clock read 3.6 seconds.

According to NCAA rules, the clock is to be stopped when the ball drops through the bottom of the net, which, in this case, should have been 3.8 seconds.

The error went undetected by those at the game, but became crystal clear in the replay-there was, in fact, 3.8 seconds remaining when the ball dropped. These two tenths of a second would have come in handy a few moments later.

SLU fouled Brandon Spann, the best free throw shooter on the Green Wave, and sent him to the free throw line with 3.2 seconds left. He netted the pair to put Tulane up 50-47.

The Bills inbounded and got the ball to Perry, who nailed a three pointer just a hair after the buzzer. And those two tenths of a second? If the clock had been at 3.8 after Braun’s trey, Perry would have released the ball at 0.2, making it a legitimate shot and sending the Bills into overtime.

But this was not the case.

After 40 minutes of mayhem, the No. 5 seed Billikens lost a wild first-round game to No. 12 seed Tulane. The emotional loss came after the Billikens defeated Tulane 67-59 in New Orleans Saturday.

Last night’s game began with Tulane blazing ahead with an early 11-0 run in the first half. The Green Wave defense smothered SLU’s offense.

Kenny Brown first put the Bills on the board by hitting a free throw six minutes into the half. The first Billiken field goal came eight minutes in from Randy Pulley, who ignited the Billiken offense by scoring five of the first six Billiken points. Diener hit the first three of the night for SLU with nearly five minutes left in the half.

The Bills made an unbelievable run late in the half, recovering from an 11-point deficit and taking a 10-point lead in 12 minutes, ending the half with a 27-17 lead.

Tulane came out feisty in the second half, but the Bills managed to maintain control throughout the beginning of the half.

The Bills experienced a major shift in dynamics on the floor when Diener was called for a technical foul after commenting to a referee about a hard fall he took on his shoulder under the net.

SLU was slowed in the latter part of the second half, and Tulane regained the lead with 3:27 left in the game.

The Bills and Green Wave traded a few points and many turnovers and fouls in the remaining minutes of the game.

The bench provided great offensive efforts for the Billikens. Braun led with 13 points, and Pulley was close behind with 11 points. Diener scored 10, the most of any of the starters. Brown was held to six points, Perry managed four and Edwin added a pair of free throws. Sloan only mustered one free throw and Josh Fisher, the hero of Saturday’s matchup, was held scoreless.

Spann had 21 points for Tulane and was 10-10 from the free throw line.

Tulane shot 20.6 percent from the field and SLU shot 36 percent. Tulane committed 12 turnovers, compared to 20 by the Billikens.

Saturday night, the Bills closed the regular season with a 67-59 win over Tulane, securing the fifth seed in the conference tournament.

“We came out and played hard,” Perry said. “A lot of people stepped up. Josh Fisher stepped up in every way possible and is capable of doing that every game. Jason Edwin did a good job on the defensive end, and Chris Sloan was good as usual on the defensive end.”

Tulane edged past the Bills in the first few minutes of the game. The Billikens managed to stay at the heels of the Green Wave and finally took the lead with less than eight minutes to play in the first half.

“Our offensive execution was good,” Braun said. “We really stepped up and got things done.”

Tulane managed to slow the Billikens during the second half, holding them scoreless for almost six minutes. With seven minutes left, SLU ran down the shot clock with a series of passes around the perimeter and finally ended their scoring dry spell when Sloan hit a fade-away jumper inside to make the score 53-43.

The Bills and Green Wave traded points for the remainder of the half, and the Green Wave crept to within six points of the Bills with only a few minutes left to play.

Tulane sent SLU to the foul line, where the Billikens sealed the victory. The Billikens hit their final six free throws, with Fisher scoring two and Diener hitting four.