SAN JOSE, Calif. – Saint Louis University had to overcome a lot of adversity during the regular season. Off the court, the issues were wholly out of its control. The death of a beloved coach, the loss of friends and former players, the adversity that seemed to define the team’s historic run seemed to motivate them, pushing them to a perform at a higher level. On the court, however, the Bills would occasionally stack the cards against themselves, relying on second half heroics to claw its way to victory. Saturday night in San Jose, they simply dug themselves in too deep.
No. 12-seeded Oregon took control early, fought off a second half surge and ultimately cruised to a 74-57 victory and its first Sweet 16 berth since 2007.
For No. 4 seed Saint Louis (28-7), it was a deflating end to a season that saw the team reach new heights before falling victim to a demon that has plagued it in the past—inconsistency on offense.
“Obviously, we played a very good basketball team tonight and we didn’t play very well, so that’s not a good formula to have a successful night, and we didn’t,” interim coach Jim Crews said. “But one night’s not going to overshadow what these guys, these two, but the rest of the team, have done this year. They’ve just done a remarkable job.”
The 2012-13 season began about as badly as a season could. The abrupt departure of coach Rick Majerus thrust Crews, who reluctantly joined the staff only a year earlier, into the coach’s role. Shortly after, captain Kwamain Mitchell broke his foot—an injury that kept him sidelined for the first two months of the season. While he worked his way back, the team sputtered to a 3-3 start before news arrived that Majerus had died.
Majerus died Dec. 1. Less than 24 hours later, the team took to the court against Valparaiso and kicked off a historic run that featured wins in 25 in of its next 28 games. The stretch included wins over a school-record five ranked teams (including No. 9 Butler), a No. 13 ranking in the AP Poll (highest since Dec. 1964), saw the Billikens claim their first outright conference title since 1957 and just the second conference tournament championship in school history.
“In the midst of uncertainty, [they] just hung in there,” Crews said. “We had a big hole and each one grabbed a shovel and dug in and contributed in ways off the court, on the court and relationship?wise that was an amazing five, six months that we’ve had together. I couldn’t be more proud of a bunch of guys than I am in terms of what they’ve accomplished this year—more so off the court than on the court.”
“We’ve been through so many highs and lows,” senior Cody Ellis said. “We pushed through a lot of adversity to be where we were today.”
“It’s been a good ride this year,” junior Dwayne Evans said. “Probably one of the funnest years of basketball I’ve ever played. And it’s had the most adversity, so it’s ironic. Couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to be around every day, even outside of practice, just a bunch of guys that got along.”
Mitchell led the way for SLU Saturday night against Oregon, chipping in 18 points with three assists and five steals, but he hit just two of seven 3-point attempts—a microcosm of everything that went wrong for his team.
Evans was held to just 16 points on eight of 13 shooting. The 6-5 forward who had been so crucial to the Billikens’ success was limited to just six points in the first half and got off just four shots against an Oregon defense that was focused on shutting him down.
“I know we have a team that’s never just going to give up and roll over,” Evans said. “We expected to come out and have a big second half and make some runs. But obviously they played better than us. We didn’t get the job done. We got a bunch of offensive rebounds, we didn’t get stops when we needed them, and that’s what killed us down the stretch.”
The Billikens had no answer for the Ducks’ three-headed monster of Daymean Dotson, EJ Singer and Carlos Emory. The trio of players combined for 51 of the team’s 74 points, knocking down 18 of 28 field goals.
Dotson led the way, accumulating a game-high 23 points on eight of 12 shooting with five 3-pointers. It was a career-high performance for the freshman guard who had averaged 15 points over his last four games.
“He’s a good athlete with great touch,” Crews said. “We didn’t get him off of shot spots like we wanted to. And sometimes it looked like we had pretty good pressure on him.”
Oregon’s defense set the tone early, using a ferocious zone defense to seal off the lane and deny SLU easy access to the basket. Unable to work the ball into Evans—or any of its bigs for that matter—the Bills began to settle for 3-pointers. Those shots weren’t falling, however, and SLU finished with just 3 triples on 21 attempts.
“Usually we’ve done better against zone, we’ve had other people zone against us,” Crews explained. “I just really think that we tried to shoot our way through some situations that maybe our problem was executing our way through it. So we were a little quick with shots.”
SLU led by five four minutes into the first half before Oregon fired back with an 8-0 run, capped with a triple from Emory, to seize its first lead at 10-7. Evans put Saint Louis back ahead, draining back-to-back field goals off feeds from Ellis to make it 11-10 with 12:50 left.
While the Billikens’ early efforts were valiant, they simply were unable to keep pace with the Oregon onslaught. Led by the law firm of Dotson, Singer and Emory, the Ducks closed the half on a 21-4 run to take a commanding 16-point lead.
Emory sparked the charge, registering 10 of his 14 points in the first 20 minutes.
“I think just the statistic, and I’m not a big statistic guy, but they were 4 for 6 in the first half from three, and we were 0 for 10,” Crews said. “It wasn’t shooting, they were getting shots inside, out. We weren’t getting shots inside, out. We were on the perimeter not looking inside the house, we were just staying outside the house.”
Saint Louis managed to pull within 11 three times over the first 10 minutes of the second half—capitalizing on miscues and missed layups by the Ducks—but each time a series of missed shots and turnovers allowed Oregon to rebuild its lead to a comfortable margin.
A layup by Jett cut the score to 48-37 with 10:19 left, but that would be SLU’s last field goal for nearly four minutes as Oregon fired back with a back-breaking 15-2 run, highlighted by three triples from Dotson, to push the margin to 24 and dim the lights on the Billiken season.
“We beat ourselves,” Mitchell said. “It hurts when you know you prepared so much for a team and know they’re beatable. They just played better basketball than us today.”
Singler, a former SLU recruit, tallied 14 points on four of six shooting to mask his eight turnovers.
Oregon finished the game shooting 53 percent from the field and 8 of 11 from behind the arc. It won the battle in the paint (32-28), on the glass (38-27) and off the bench (25-16).
“We played really bad,” Loe said. “It’s a credit to Oregon’s defense, they took us out of what we wanted to do. We didn’t get stops the way we wanted to get stops, our defense was not performing the way we wanted to perform. They were getting easy looks, got confident, and were able to make whatever they wanted to.”
For Saint Louis, what promises to be an eventful offseason begins earlier than most expected. The most pertinent question is at head coach. While interim coach Jim Crews ability to lead the squad through all the trials and tribulations of the 2012-13 campaign earned him the job in the eyes of most on-lookers, it remains to be seen if the school believes in his ability to recruit and if the battle-tested coach, who was in retirement just a few years ago, wants to take the job full time.
Speaking of recruiting, whoever the coach is, faces the arduous task of replacing Mitchell, Ellis and Cory Remekun. The three players, who had emerged (with Evans) as the face of the team, were instrumental in the team’s success this season and logged valuable minutes—Mitchell as a starter, Ellis and Remekun off the bench.
“They were incredible this year,” Crews said. “In the midst of uncertainty and adversity, how they hung together and grew together, individually and collectively, as people and a team. I think they made a very influential imprint on St. Louis University and the community with how they handled it in tough times.”
