Jimmy Valvano’s North Carolina State "Cardiac Kids"
are still the reigning champs as far as last-second victories go,
but this year’s Saint Louis University men’s basketball team is not
too far behind.
After last second victories this season versus Kansas State,
Southern Miss, Marquette, Charlotte and Houston and more than a few
last-second defeats, including heart-breakers against Arizona and
Marquette, the Billikens have started to show a flare for the
dramatic, including a handful of very impressive comebacks from
double-digit deficits. These comeback kids have given fans some
gems and have given a lot of opponents fits.
And, thankfully, last night was an instance of the latter.
night as he drilled a three-pointer from the corner as the final
buzzer sounded to propel the Billikens past the Iowa University
Hawkeyes 70-69 at the St. Charles Family Arena in the first round
of the 2004 Owens Corning National Invitation Tournament.
"I had a hunch that if anyone was going to make that shot,
it would be Drejaj," SLU coach Brad Soderberg said after the
game. "He’s got such a will to win."
After taking a 2-0 lead in the early going, the Billikens saw
many things go wrong in the first half.
The Billikens received two technical fouls, one to Soderberg for
expressing his displeasure with a no-call by one of the officials,
and the other for coming out of a timeout with six men on the
floor.
The Hawkeyes capitalized on many Billiken mistakes and jumped
out to a 29-11 lead. The Billikens managed to claw their way back
into the game, to trail 35-26 at halftime, after Sloan hit one of
two free throws at the end of the half.
As the second half began, the Billikens continued to cut into
the Hawkeye lead. Led by Drejaj, who came off the bench to lead all
scorers, with 23 points, SLU finally knotted the game up at 63 when
Sloan made a lay up with 2:09 remaining. After Iowa head coach
Steve Alford called a timeout, the Hawkeyes re-captured the lead on
the next possession, when center Greg Brunner received a pass
inside and converted a dunk.
After the Billikens failed to score on their next offensive
possession, Iowa increased their lead to 4 points when sophomore
guard Pierre Pierce made a lay-up to give the Hawkeyes a 67-63
lead.
Drejaj cut the lead to two after converting a lay-up and then
stole the ball from Iowa guard Jeff Horner on Iowa’s next
possession. After bringing the ball down the court, Drejaj was
fouled and made both free-throws to tie the game at 67 with 23
seconds remaining.
After a timeout, Pierce gave the Hawkeyes a 69-67 lead with five
seconds remaining. The timekeeper, who repeatedly made errors with
either the game clock or the scoreboard, failed to stop the clock,
so the officials had to check with the television monitor to
correctly determine the amount of time to put back on the clock,
which was determined to be five seconds.
During this time, both teams were able to set up a play for the
final possession.
On the inbounds pass, Josh Fisher was double covered, so the
inbounds pass went to Sloan and he turned and sped down the
floor.
As he entered the lane, two defenders converged on him, allowing
Sloan to pass to Drejaj, who was unmarked in the corner and hit the
winner as the boisterous crowd erupted in celebration. Drejaj ran
down toward the students, who had made their way onto the court;
Sloan celebrated atop a courtside table, while Soderberg punched
the air in jubilation.
With the win, SLU improved to 19-12, while the Hawkeyes’ season
ended at 16-13.
"That’s probably the fourth or fifth game like this where
they’ve found a way to get it done," Soderberg said.
"What a pleasure it’s been to coach these guys."
The Billikens will next be in action against the Notre Dame
Fighting Irish, who advanced to the NIT second round last night by
upending the Purdue Boilermakers. The Billikens will now get to
host the Irish, this Saturday night, again at the St. Charles
Family Arena, in St. Charles, Mo. The game time is 7 p.m.
The NIT does it’s scheduling in a very odd fashion as it has to
wait for the games to finish before scheduling the time and place
of the next game.
This is done for various reasons, not the least of which are
scheduling conflicts at the home arenas for the different teams, as
well as the television rights that the team has with ESPN.
The NIT win came after the Billikens competed in the Conference
USA Tournament in Cincinnati last week, going 2-1 and making it to
the semifinals for the second consecutive year.
In the first game of the tournament, the Billikens came away
with a 52-46 victory over Southern Miss. Senior guard Phil Hunt led
the Billikens with 14 points.
Up next for the Billikens were the Tigers of the University of
Memphis, who entered the game ranked 23rd in the nation.
SLU played one of their best games of the season, surprising the
immensely talented Tigers with a 72-61 upset, as Reggie Bryant led
all scorers, with 18 points.
foe in the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, who entered the game
ranked 12th in the nation.
With the Bearcats leading 31-30 early in the second half, UC
went on a 19-0 run to put the game out of reach for the
Billikens.
The Billikens shot 27.5 percent from the field in the game,
while the Bearcats shot 46.4 percent for the game and just under 60
percent in the second half.
The victory against the Hawkeyes Tuesday was reminiscent of
another recent Billiken win, against the Houston Cougars in the
last game of the season.
In that game, which the Bills played without Bryant and Tom
Frericks, the Billikens fell behind by as much as 20 quite
early.
But in an impressive display of determination, the Billikens
clawed their way out of the deficit and made a game of it.
The highlight of the game was a last second tip-in by Hunt which
sent the game into overtime. The Bills took the lead early in the
extra frame and never looked back.
The Saint Louis University men’s basketball team’s 2nd round
NIT game against Notre Damewill be Monday, March 22, at 7 p.m. in
Fort Wayne, Ind. It was originally reported to be this Saturday
evening at the St. Charles Family Arena. Sorry for the
confusion.
