January 22, 2000
CHICAGO - Saint Louis guard Justin Love scored eight of his 18 points in overtime as the Billikens knocked off No. 22 DePaul 75-69 this afternoon before 12,174 at Allstate Arena. The victory snapped an eight-game Conference USA road losing streak for the Bills, who improved to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in C-USA.
"I didn't think that I was playing as well or as aggressively as I know I can, so I picked it up in the overtime," Love said. "With the tough game that DePaul had at Louisville on Thursday night, I think they were looking past us a little bit. They didn't seem to be quite ready to play at the beginning of the game."
Saint Louis took advantage of the lethargic Blue Demons (12-5, 3-3) in the opening moments by scoring the game's first four points. DePaul answered with a 6-0 run of its own to claim its first lead of the first half on a Steven Hunter lay-up with 14:59 to play.
Billiken reserve senior guard John Redden's defense swung the momentum in the Bills' favor as he came up with three steals in less than a minute-and-a-half. Chris Heinrich scored eight first-half points and had his way in the paint as the Billikens built a seven-point lead at the 4:54 mark. SLU led by as many as nine in the first half when Maurice Jeffers dropped in a free throw with 48 seconds remaining and led 30-23 at halftime.
DePaul began the second half by picking up the intensity and tied the game at 30 just over 90 seconds into the period. Bobby Simmons knocked in a pair of free throws and made a lay-up, while Kerry Hartfield drilled a three as DePaul quickly closed the gap.
Saint Louis proved to be resilient at every DePaul surge and again built the lead to to 45-41 at the 9:21 mark on a Love trey. Dave Fergerson gave the Bills a 58-56 lead with 2:09 to play in regulation, and SLU couldn't score again. Simmons dropped in two free throws with 38 seconds remaining, but Love's miss on a driving hook shot was too hard with 0.3 on the clock. Saint Louis had the ball out of bounds and ran a lob play for Matt Baniak, but the pass was just slightly too high for the junior forward to get a hand on it.
DePaul scored first in OT on a pair of Quentin Richardson free throws, but Fergerson tied the game with a floater in the lane. After a lay-up by Jeffers, Richardson nailed a three to make give DePaul its last lead at 63-62. Love then took over. His jumper with 3:12 remaining gave SLU the lead for good. Fergerson stole the ball, and fed Love on the break and he was fouled by Rashon Burno. Two more tosses pushed the lead to five.
Saint Louis put the game away as Love and Fergerson drained five of six free throws in the final 25 seconds. The Billikens out-rebounded DePaul 34-33 and limited the Demons to 37.7 percent from the field. DePaul had been out-rebounding its opponents by more than 10 per game.
DePaul's Richardson led all scorers with 22 points, but 10 of his 16 shots were from three-point distance and he made only three. Simmons and Burno each finished with 13.
Fergerson enjoyed his best outing of the season with 18 points on 6-8 shooting from the field, and Baniak added 10 off the bench.
The victory also snapped a six-game losing streak to ranked teams on the road for the Billikens, who last beat a ranked opponent on its home floor during the 1996-97 season when SLU dumped fifth-ranked Louisville at Freedom Hall.
The Billikens begin a two-game C-USA homestand by hosting Marquette on Wed., Jan. 26.
