January 29, 2000

ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis hammered out a 52-48 victory over Louisville in a Conference USA men's basketball game this afternoon before a paid crowd of 13,091 at Kiel Center. Justin Love drained four free throws in the final 41 seconds to secure the victory. Billiken junior forward Justin Tatum collected 15 points and 11 boards as SLU won its third in a row.

"Louisville gives you fits defensively, because they've got so many interchangeable parts," said Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar. "But we played a solid game at the defensive end, got the key stop at the end and made our free throws."

Louisville enjoyed the largest lead of the game at 18-8 with 8:19 to play in the first half on a Marques Maybin jumper. But the Billikens countered with defensive stopper John Redden, and the Cardinals didn't make a field goal for the remainder of the half. Saint Louis ran off a 13-0 run punctuated by Love's three to give the Bills a 21-18 lead. Chris Braun goaltended on the Cards' final shot of the half, and SLU carried a 21-20 lead to the break.

Neither team could break away in the second half although Saint Louis threatened midway through. Leading 35-30 on Matt Baniak's lay-up, the Bills tried to break the game open with a long lead pass to Baniak, but it was just too high for him to handle. Louisville answered with a Reece Gaines jumper and four consecutive free throws to regain the lead 36-35 with 9:23 to play. The see-saw second half featured 11 lead changes and eight ties.

With the Billikens leading 48-46, UL's Nate Johnson attempted a three that rolled off the front of the rim, but Marques Maybin came flying down the lane for a two-handed slam on the put-back. With 1:42 to play, Gaines missed a pair of free throws that would have given the Cards the lead.

Saint Louis called time out and ran a back-door play for Love who was fouled by Tobia Hopper. Love knocked in both throws with 41 seconds remaining. After a Louisville time-out, Gaines couldn't find anyone open, drove into the lane and had the ball knocked away. Tatum recovered, pitched an out-let pass to Love, who was immediately fouled by Tony Williams. Love calmly dropped in both free throws with five ticks remaining for the final 52-48 margin.

"We played well enough to win this game," Cardinals head coach Denny Crum said. "We out-shot them from the field. We out-shot them from three. We out-rebounded them and had more assists. What we didn't do was make free throws in the final five minutes. We missed five, and they made their's. But give Saint Louis credit, they made their free throws when they had to."

"This was the best road game we've played so far," said Crum, who's club lost its fourth straight road contest. "I'd take this effort on the road every time. It's not been just one thing that's been beating us on the road. We mess up something different every time."

Neither club shot the ball well as Louisville managed only 36.2 percent from the floor, while the Billikens connected on only 33.3 percent from the field and just 1-of-12 from three.

"We were fortunate to win today," Love said. "But when we are turning the ball over and not making shots, it's critical that we have a player like John Redden who must have caused 10 turnovers by himself. We may have turned the ball over, but we caused just as many on defense."

Redden and Dave Fergerson each swiped three of the Billikens' 11 steals and harassed freshman Cards point guard Reece Gaines into six turnovers. The Cards finished with 25 turnovers, while the Bills gave it right back 19 times.

Love led the Bills with 21 points, while Maybin finished with 14 for UL and Nate Johnson added 12.

Saint Louis (12-7, 4-3) has a week to prepare for a game at South Florida on Sat., Feb. 5. Louisville (11-8, 3-5) goes to Georgetown on Tue., Feb. 1.