Finally!
Heartache after heartache. Close call after close-call. The Saint Louis men’s basketball team has had its fair share of gut-wrenching close encounters these past few years and each time it seemed to come up just short. SLU had quietly become the Susan Lucci of the college basketball world; sure they’d received their share of nominations, but until last night they had never actually been called to get up and take home the hardware.
But that all changed last night after the Bills put on one of the most impressive displays of tenacity and heart seen from a team wearing a Billiken uniform in a long time. It was an ardent struggle against the No. 2 ranked team in the country, the Louisville Cardinals, a game that was of seemingly no interest to the rest of the world. It would be lucky to get a stat-line on SportsCenter, let alone a highlight. It was just supposed to be another trouncing for the high-flying Cardinals against the overmatched Billikens.
But the unexpected happened. SLU won. When all was said and done, the score was 59-58, but the score does this game no justice.
The game started off slow for the Bills. They quickly fell behind 9-0 and the crowd was nowhere to be found.
But then they forced a turnover and Marque Perry quickly drove the ball up the floor for what looked like SLU’s first bucket of the game. Only he was intentionally fouled. He sank the two freethrows. The Billikens got the ball back, and Perry made another basket to cut the lead to just five.
From there, the pace quickened on defense and slowed to a meticulous pace on offense, which is exactly what the Bills had in mind.
“We knew that hustling would be the difference in the game. We knew we had to work,” junior Chris Sloan said.
The Bills and the Cardinals exchanged leads throughout the rest of the first half. Then with a little more than a minute remaining, and the score tied 30-30, SLU brought the ball up the court, trying to find a good look at the basket. But none was to be found.
With the clock winding down, freshman Anthony Drejaj put up a runner, which bounced off the rim; only senior Drew Diener smacked the ball back out to the top of the key and the Bills had a fresh shot clock to work with.
And then, in a deja vu-like sequence of events, senior Josh Fisher put up a shot that missed, but the Bills were once again able to come away with the rebound.
Now, with less than 15 seconds left, the Bills were holding for one last shot and the lead to take into halftime, which is exactly what they got when Sloan drilled a three-pointer as the clock ran out.
“It was definitely a huge boost in confidence. They did pretty much the same thing to us when we played them at their place earlier this season, and it gave them a swell of confidence for the second half of the game, which they used to beat us,” Sloan said.
In the second half, the Bills fell behind again, but, like the first half, they were able to stay close due to a number of incredible scoring plays, including a three-pointer from Fisher as the shot clock was hitting zero from about 6 feet behind the three-point line and a never-ending stream of pull-up jumpers in the lane from Perry. Sloan also contributed a couple of thunderous dunks to the Billiken effort and had the play of the game with a one-handed, off-balanced put-back off of a missed Bills shot. Sloan and Fisher each finished with 11 points, but it was definitely Perry’s night, as he poured in 25.
“Perry has been a tremendous leader all year,” head coach Brad Soderberg said. “He scores when it matters most.”
“Anytime you play a dominant point guard like Perry, you have to play harder because he can control the game. And he did,” Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said at a post-game press conference, where he looked like he’d aged about 10 years since the start of the game. His once thick New York accent now sounded raspy and tired; like he had just spent two hours yelling at the top of his lungs, trying to get his team to play better, which, ironically, he just had.
Perry put together a Herculean performance, whichgot better as the game neared its end. With less than a minute remaining the Bills down by seven, Perry hit a jumper.
On the ensuing possession Sloan stole the ball and took it the full length of the court to cut the lead to three. SLU fouled Reece Gaines on the inbound pass and he sunk one of two free throws. The lead was up to four, with less than 50 seconds remaining.
The Bills brought the ball up the court and, after a few passes, Perry took the ball on a dribble-drive and banked home a jumper in the lane and was fouled. He sank the free throw and the lead was just one.
After the Cardinals brought the ball down the court again, Fisher reached in on Louisville guard Taquan Dean and stole the ball. He pushed it up the floor to Perry, who drove the baseline on his defender but lost control of the ball, and it rolled out of bounds.
“At this point all I could think of was getting the ball back and making up for that play,” Perry said.
And on the ensuing inbound pass, Perry deflected the pass headed for Gaines and freshman Anthony Drejaj tracked the ball down and got it back up to Perry, who laid in a finger roll, to give the Bills the lead with just 3.2 seconds left, sealing the biggest win yet in the Soderberg era of SLU basketball.
By the time Cardinal superstar Gaines’ desperation shot caromed off the iron, as the last seconds expired from the clock, hundreds of members of the SLU student body had enveloped the outnumbered security guards patrolling in front of the student section and proceeded to rush the court in dionysian fashion.
The scoreboard read: SLU 59, Louisville 58. The game was over. SLU had won. Finally.
