ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis held off a late Southwest Missouri State rally and snapped a three-game losing streak by topping the Bears 80-70 this afternoon before a paid crowd of 13,974 at Savvis Center. Senior swingman Maurice Jeffers poured in a career-high 26 points to save the Billikens.
"Confidence is an extremely fragile thing, but we restored some of that this afternoon and that was critical," Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "At the end of this game, we talked about execution and shot selection. Once we started picking things up at the defensive end, we closed the game the way we're supposed to."
The Billikens opened up a seven-point lead early in the second half behind an aggressive defense and solid free throw shooting. After Matt Reuter pulled SMS to within three just five minutes into the period, Jeffers hit two of his 14 free throws and sliced through for a lay-up to open the biggest margin of the game for either team.
The Bears weren't finished, however, staging an 11-to-4 run to tie the score at 58 with just under nine minutes remaining. SMS got its first lead since midway through the first half when Robert Yanders collected a loose ball under the Bears' basket and hit a lay-up and the ensuing free throw after a SLU foul with 6:19 remaining.
Jeffers immediately answered with a runner on the other end as the Bills started an 20-to-9 run that closed the game. With both team's shooting the ball well, defense was again the difference-maker and senior forward Justin Tatum was at the head of it all, disrupting the offense and forcing several turnovers, including a 10-second backcourt violation, at crucial moments down the stretch. Saint Louis forced the Bears into 14 turnovers to just one SMS assist.
Saint Louis sealed the victory by hitting all 12 free throw attempts in the game's final five minutes. The Billikens shot the ball well from all spots on the floor, hitting 52.1 percent from the field after managing just 27.4 percent accuracy in the loss at DePaul.
"We never thought about having trouble shooting the ball, that's not a problem," Jeffers said. "We know that some days the shots go in, and some days they don't. We were confident that if we came out here today and played, the shots would go down. We weren't worried about any carry-over from DePaul."
The Bears had the better of play in the first half, despite a four-point Billiken advantage at the break. All the action was down low in the opening stanza as Billiken senior center Chris Heinrich posted 10 of his 12 points in the first 20 minutes.
"My teammates looked for me in the first half, because other options didn't seem to be available," Heinrich said. "In the second half, other players stepped up so there didn't seem to be the need to look to me. We still went inside to other people like Justin Tatum, so it worked out."
For the Bears, Scott Brakebill was slowed only by foul trouble as he scored 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Yanders and Travis Walk also were in double figures for SMS with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
For the Bills, Tatum joined Jeffers and Heinrich in double digits, scoring 14 points, including 6-of-8 from the free throw line. The trio also pulled down five boards each. Sophomore guard Marque Perry added eight points to the effort, while dishing out a career-high seven assists and matching his career-high with four steals. Freshman Chris Sloan had his most productive outing of the season with six points and four rebounds in 13 minutes of action.
The Billikens (6-4, 0-1) face Texas A&M in Hawaii's Rainbow Classic on Wed., Dec. 27.
