Right name, wrong team.
Last night, the leading scorer in the Marquette/Saint Louis University men’s basketball tilt had the name Diener on the back of his jersey and rained in 21 points, nine of which came from three-point territory. But his jersey was yellow, not blue.
The evening featured the family rivalry of Billiken guard Drew Diener and his cousin Travis Diener, a sophomore guard at Marquette. Travis Diener led the Golden Eagles to a 68-64 victory that was not sealed until the final moments of the game.
Despite an uncharacteristically poor showing from Marquette standout Dwayne Wade, the Golden Eagles managed to edge past the Bills, even after Anthony Drejaj drained a huge three-pointer to pull SLU close to tying position 67-64 with just a few ticks left in the game. Billiken coach Brad Soderberg devised a plan to take the lead by creating an opportunity for Drew Diener to shoot a three, but everything went awry when Marquette’s defense intervened and caused Josh Fisher to heave a shot up that missed completely.
Fisher ended the night with 10 points, while Marque Perry and Chris Sloan were the high-scorers for Saint Louis with 13 points apiece. Drew Diener managed seven points and just one three-point field goal.
Saturday night, Perry secured the Billikens’ 65-57 win over DePaul from behind the free-throw line in the game’s final moments. In the final four minutes, Perry scored SLU’s last 16 points of the game, 13 of which came off of foul shots.
“Marque was at the top of his game tonight and that helped a ton,” Soderberg said. “He remains Mr. Clutch down the stretch at the free-throw line. They were trying to triple-team at the end, but he’s so explosive that it is almost impossible to contain him.”
The first half of the game featured a showcase of Sloan’s versatile offensive abilities, as he hit the first shot of the game, a three-pointer 3:15 into the game. With 1:30 remaining in the half, Sloan stole the ball on defense and made a solo run down the court, which he capped off with a picture-perfect dunk to put the Bills ahead 22-21. However, DePaul retaliated with a bucket in the final seconds of the half and went into the break with a 23-22 lead.
The Billikens managed to take control of the game midway through the second half. With just over 10 minutes remaining, Diener recovered from his 0-4 first-half efforts and drained his first three-pointer of the night, then sank another three 32 seconds later to finally put the Bills up 41-39.
“We came in at halftime and my coaches and teammates kept telling me to shoot the ball,” Diener said. “I came off that three and I got a decent look and it went down.”
For the remaining 10 minutes, SLU stayed in control of the game, but DePaul, despite a poor showing from offensive leader Andre Brown thanks to the defense of Kenny Brown, managed to stay within at least eight points until the final buzzer.
“We were doubling everybody but who Kenny was guarding. Andre is just a bomb waiting to go off and at any minute he can score. Kenny frustrated him all night,” Sloan said.”
The overall intensity level of the game rose in the final minutes of the half when both teams made modifications in their defense. The SLU guards shifted around on the court, and Diener was pitted against his younger brother, Drake, a sophomore guard for the Blue Demons. DePaul switched to a zone defense later in the half but still could not contain Perry. Instead, the Blue Demons fouled him seven times in the last five minutes.
“We wanted to try to crowd [Perry]. He comes off screens and is a very effective player … good players take over when the game is on the line, and he did that,” said DePaul coach Dave Leitao.
Perry ended the night with 28 points, four rebounds and shot 93 percent from the free-throw line, consistent with his average of 93 percent from the line in the last five minutes of play. Sloan had a strong showing with 13 points, including nine points from the perimeter, while Diener made a comeback with nine points during the second half.
