The Saint Louis University men’s basketball team traveled to Houston for a tilt with the University of Houston Cougars Wednesday night. Unfortunately for the Billikens, this version of the Cougars bore more of a resemblance to the great Houston teams of the early ’80s than the more recent teams, which had been somewhat of a Conference USA doormat, as SLU fell 63-43 at Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Billikens fell behind 9-0 early in the game as a result of their sloppy play, which led to turnovers on each of their first three possessions, answered by stellar shooting by the Cougars. After freshman guard Dwayne Polk drained a three pointer to put the Billikens on the scoreboard, senior guard Reggie Bryant made 1-2 free throws to cut the deficit to 9-4 before the Cougars added a lay-in by a pair of baskets, including a three pointer by Brian Latham, to widen the lead to 14-4.
Andre Owens was the offensive star of the half, scoring 19 points on a combination of three pointers and drives to the hoop, which resulted in lay-ups.
The Billikens were able to cut the Houston lead to 10 points, but could come no closer and ultimately trailed 36-24 at the half.
The second half began much as the first half had gone, as Houston forward Ramon Dyer drilled a three from the corner on the Cougars’ first possession of the half. Following a dunk by SLU sophomore center Ian Vouyoukas, Owens eclipsed the 20-point mark for the 10th time this season when he nailed another three of his own to widen his team’s lead to 42-26.
Trailing 42-26, the Billikens scored the game’s next five points, as Bryant converted a three-point play and freshman guard Danny Brown, a Houston native playing in front of a group of family and friends, dunked in transition to bring the score to 42-31.
This was the closest SLU got for the rest of the game, as Engelbert Cherrington made a pair of free throws and Dwight Jones II hit a three pointer, increasing the Cougar lead.
Though he didn’t duplicate his first-half performance statistically, Owens did add to his scoring totals in the second half, finishing with 26 points.
Eighteen turnovers plagued the Billikens, as did a poor offensive performance for the third consecutive game. On the defensive side of play, Houston was able to score, often with a few seconds remaining on the shot clock, many times with three pointers, thus negating 30 seconds of solid defense by the Billikens.
With the loss, the Billikens fell to 5-15 overall and 3-5 in Conference USA games, while the Cougars improved to 13-9 overall and 4-4 in C-USA. SLU is currently tied for eighth in the C-USA standings.
On Saturday the Billikens lost a hard-fought battle with Marquette 55-51 in double overtime at the Savvis Center.
SLU had an eight-point lead with a little over four minutes remaining, before Marquette went on an 8-0 run over the final four minutes of regulation. Steve Novak and Joe Chapman both hit threes and Dameon Mason followed his own missed shot with a tip-in to tie the score at 42-42. The Golden Eagles had a chance to win at the buzzer, but a shot put up right before the horn missed everything, sending the game into overtime.
Just as in regulation, scoring was sparse in the first overtime, with each team only scoring five points. After Mason drilled a three for Marquette to give the Golden Eagles a three-point lead, Bryant hit from downtown on SLU’s next possession to knot the score. Marquette had another chance to win at the buzzer, but the result was identical to the end of regulation.
In the second overtime, senior forward Izik Ohanon, who had a double-double for the game, and Vouyoukas each made 1-2 free throws, thus missing out on a chance to put their team on top.
Late in the second overtime, with Marquette up 52-51, Chapman hit a long three as the shot clock expired to bury SLU and solidify the win for Marquette.
The Billikens are in action again on Sunday against DePaul University at the Savvis Center at 1:10 p.m. The Blue Demons are currently 14-5, with a 6-2 C-USA mark. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but it was rescheduled to accommodate the welterweight championship boxing match between Cory Spinks and Zab Judah, which is scheduled for Saturday night at the Savvis Center.
