If there were to be a recurring theme for the 2010-11 Saint Louis University men’s basketball team, it would be this: we were so close.
That theme continued Wednesday, Jan. 26 at Chaifetz Arena when the un-titan of the league Rhode Island (13-7, 4-2) downed the Billikens (7-12, 2-4) by just a bucket, sending 6,000 fans home wondering,
“Could it get any worse?”
Freshman Jordair Jett led the Bills with 14 points and 7-of-10 shooting.
Kyle Cassity had 11 points and a game-high five assists, while Dwayne Evans and Mike McCall netted nine points apiece.
Evans (six rebounds) and Cody Ellis (five) led the Billiken effort on the boards.
“Look, if we make one stop, we win the game,” head coach Rick Majerus lamented. “If we make two jumpers, we win the game. But part of it is that we are young; we play four freshman a lot … I’m frustrated by it.”
The Billikens have needed that one stop, one more jumper consistently over the season.
Two losses, 64-62 in the season opener against Austin Peay and 61-59 against Georgia could be turned into wins with one more basket.
Another, a conference tilt at Temple, ended in a four-point loss for SLU.
While one could point to a variety of reasons for the close loses, the most glaring are the lack of a true leader and a player who can close out the game in dramatic style.
“When you’re a driver in the car and a passenger in the car, those are two different things,” Majerus said. “The guys who drive the car are gone, and now Cody [Ellis] and Kyle [Cassity] have to step in to drive, and psychologically they aren’t equipped for that; they don’t want it.”
“I’m trying to make them be something they’re not.”
The loss to the Rams throws a wrench into SLU’s hope of competing for a spot in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament.
With the A-10 being unexpectedly wide-open, the Billikens started the night in a battle with the likes of Temple, Dayton and Rhode Island. They now will struggle to finish .500 in the league with games against Xavier, Dayton and league-leading Duquesne still left on the schedule.
The Billikens struggled to guard Rams’ Delroy James throughout the second half, ultimately leading to the defeat. James shot 6-8 in the half for a game high 21 points.
Behind James hot shooting, Rhode Island shot 54.2 percent in the second half, a tough number to win against.
Majerus constantly rotated his defenders around James, who outmuscled junior Brian Conklin, spun around Jett and stood over Evans. Due to a lack of size and strength in the paint, SLU was simply outmatched.
“I didn’t see [a good match-up], or I would have kept it,” Majerus said. “Dwayne [Evans] isn’t tough enough. Conklin doesn’t have a good feel. Jordair is too small. And I couldn’t go to a junk defense because they’re too good of 3-point shooters.”
SLU and URI went bucket-for-bucket throughout the night. Neither team led by more than five points; they also exchanged the lead 15 times while tying seven times. The Billikens, however, got stuck on the wrong side of a Rhode Island lead.
The Rams scored eight consecutive points over the final 4:48 of the game to erase a 54-51 SLU advantage. The biggest blow came when Will Martell rebounded a miss by James, scored and converted a three-point play with 18 seconds left.
SLU pulled within the two on a late, Cassity three but were left with under a second left on the clock and no feasible way to secure the win.
“It doesn’t matter how each individual does if we don’t get the win,” Christian Salecich said. “This is disappointing.”
The Billikens head to the nation’s capital this weekend to take on George Washington on Saturday, Jan. 29. The Colonials are 3-3 in league play.
