ST. LOUIS — Saint Louis put up a valiant effort against No. 12 Wichita State, but a series of missed opportunities over the game’s final minutes ultimately led to its demise in a 70-65 defeat Sunday afternoon at Chaifetz Arena.
The Billikens had an opportunity to either take the lead or tie the game with a pair of free throws twice over the final 1:24, but were unable to convert. The loss dropped Saint Louis to 6-2 on the year.
“We can only miss so many opportunities to get statement wins throughout the year,” a visibly frustrated Dwayne Evans said after the game. “I think we’re playing well, but we have to pull one of these out.
“We got a lead there towards the end, but didn’t make the right plays down the stretch and it [ended up] biting us.”
“We just have to close it out, especially against two ranked teams,” senior Mike McCall Jr. said. “We don’t get opportunities like this all the time throughout the season and when we get the opportunity, we just have to give it our all and finish it out.”
Down one with 1:24 remaining, McCall picked up the steal and drew the foul against Tekele Cotton to get to the free throw line with a chance to give SLU the lead. McCall, who had not attempted a free throw since he knocked down a pair against Oral Roberts on Nov. 21, hit his first attempt to tie game at 64, but failed to convert on his second, which allowed Wichita State to reclaim the lead following a bucket from Ron Baker, who was left alone along the baseline.
“I was in the corner and I was off-balanced myself, so I was just looking for an outlet and I think the help defender that slid over to take [Baker] went back to his own man and that’s how he ended up all alone,” Fred VanVleet explained. “I just found him and he made a big shot as he did all night tonight.”
Jake Barnett had an opportunity to respond for the Billikens on the ensuing possession, drawing a foul on an inbounds play under the SLU basket, but hit just one of two, to cut the score to 66-65 WSU with 30 seconds remaining. The Shockers capitalized on SLU’s missed free throws, using a layup from Cleanthony Early to push the score to 68-65 with 14 seconds remaining.
Barnett had another opportunity to tie the game on SLU’s next possession, this time from the far left corner with under 10 seconds remaining, but his shot was re-directed by a WSU defender and fell well-short of its intended target.
Chadrack Lufile pulled in the rebound for the Shockers and passed it to VanVleet who knocked down a pair of free throws to ice the 5-point victory for Wichita State.
“They’re a very good team,” SLU coach Jim Crews said. “We think that we’re a pretty good team and hopefully we’ll keep getting better. I’m disappointed that we lost, but I saw a lot of good things out there from our guys.”
Guard Ron Baker was a force for Wichita State, scoring a game-high 22 points on 7 of 10 shooting. He hit a pair of 3-pointers, the second of which gave Wichita State a 6-point lead early in the second half. Baker compensated for his three turnovers with four steals, a pair of assists and six rebounds.
Cotton registered a double-double, posting 10 points and pulling in 10 rebounds. Lufile (12), Early (12) and VanVleet (10) also scored in double figures for the Shockers, who shot 46.2 percent from the field and hit 17 of 19 free throws (89.5 percent) as a team.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Crews said. “You really had to earn everything from playing Wichita. I think they had to earn everything playing against us. It was a game of swings. They made the last swing, which was obviously advantageous to them.
Evans netted a team-high 18 points for the Billikens, 16 of which came in the second half, including eight on nine free throw attempts. Wichita State’s defense denied him the ball in the post through much of the first half, but Evans remained effective for the Billiken offense registering four assists, a block and a steal. His positioning along the perimeter cleared space inside for forward Rob Loe, who was the beneficiary on three of Evans’ four assists.
“I have to start asserting myself in the first half,” Evans said. “I’ve kind of gotten into a lousy trend here of not really picking things up until the second half. So, I’ll address that.”
With 11 points, Loe was one of four players to finish in double-figures for Saint Louis, but foul trouble limited him to just nine minutes in the second half. His fourth foul of the game came midway through the second half and pushed John Manning into action.
Manning performed admirably on the defensive end, forcing a steal and knocking down the only field goal he attempted. Unfortunately for the Billikens, he too ran into foul trouble, which forced Crews to sub in Loe, who lasted about a minute before fouling out with 4:19 remaining. Manning faired a little better in relief, managing to avoid his fifth foul until the 1:56 mark.
McCall and Jett chipped in 12 points apiece for SLU, which generated 25 points off 18 Wichita State turnovers. The Shockers out-rebounded the Billikens 38-27 (12-9 advantage on offensive glass) and generated 35 points in the paint.
“They got a lot of offensive boards—we had a couple of missed assignments. Myself, I was late on a couple things and only ended up with like five boards—that’s not going to get it done.” Evans said. “As a team, we have to keep teams off the offensive boards. That kills us.”
When asked what the team could learn from its close losses to No. 10 Wisconsin and No. 12 Wichita State, McCall pointed to four areas: “Turnovers, taking care of the ball, running our offense and once we have a lead, we have to keep being aggressive on offense and keeping up the defense.”
When asked if he thought the team relaxed when it’s ahead in games, the senior guard responded, “I wouldn’t say we relax, it’s just that certain aggression we have, once we make our run, we just kind of slow down instead of [staying] aggressive.”
SLU, which led by as many as 10 early in the first half, grabbed a 9-point lead behind a layup from Jett with 12:44 remaining. The Shockers fired back, snapping a nearly three-minute scoring drought with a 3-pointer from Baker. That long-range bucket sparked a 17-0 run that gave WSU an 8-point lead, its largest of the half.
Down 24-16 and in serious danger of being blown out by halftime, the Billikens stormed back, with an 8-0 run to seize a 25-24 lead entering the final media timeout of the half. McBroom and Barnett served as the catalysts for that crucial run, with the sophomore transfer knocking down a 3-pointer to snap an 8-minute scoring drought for the home team, followed by a steal on the other end by the senior forward—Barnett was fouled on the attempted layup and knocked down both free throws. After kicking off the run with a trey, McBroom capped it off, utilizing the shot fake along the perimeter to create an open look for himself inside the arc.
The two teams exchanged blows over the final two minutes of the half, but SLU landed the final blow with a jumper by Loe that gave the home team a 29-28 advantage heading into the break.
“Just a war,” Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall said. “It was a great basketball game – two very, very tough teams. I’m just glad it was a 40-minute game and not 43 because their run was coming next. It was just a game of runs.”
It’s another quick turnaround for the Billikens, who will look to bounce back Tuesday evening against Rockhurst. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
