Saint Louis held off a Texas A&M second-half rally tonight and beat the Aggies 72-60 in the first round of the 37th annual Rainbow Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center. Billiken senior swingman
Maurice Jeffers poured in 24 points on 90 percent shooting from the field as SLU won its second straight.
"I was pleased with our effort tonight, and we'll be alright if we have that type of effort every night the rest of the year," Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "It's pretty easy to acknowledge what Moe Jeffers did tonight, but people like Drew Diener and Justin Tatum gave us more than the box score showed. We had some out-standing hustle plays tonight."
Saint Louis led virtually from the outset as the Aggies only managed to lead once at 11-10 with 12:43 to play in the first half. From that point, the Billikens went on a 15-2 run to open their largest lead of the game at 25-13 with 6:09 to play in the half. Jeffers capped the rally with a jumper and a trey.
Saint Louis still had a 10-point advantage going into the final minute of play, but the Aggies remained within shouting distance when Jamaal Gilchrist knocked down a pair of free throws with 47 seconds remaining and drilled a three at the buzzer to make it 33-28 game halftime.
The Aggies rallied within 42-41 with 12:22 remaining, but freshman swingman Floyd McClain made the play of his young career after missing two free throws. He stole the ball from A&M forward Aaron Jack and dished to Josh Fisher for a lay-up. At one point, Jeffers scored six consecutive points while holding off the surging Aggies.
Texas A&M again pulled within 57-55 at the 4:21 on forward Nick Anderson's follow shot, but the Bills' Matt Baniak drilled a three and pushed Saint Louis safely ahead for good. The Bills allowed the door to stay open as both Marque Perry and Diener missed front ends of one-and-one free throw situations, but the Bills' defense denied the Aggies at the other end.
Saint Louis drilled its last six free throws, and Tatum finished a fast break with a dunk to close the door completely. The Billikens held A&M to 37.3 percent shooting from the field and 21.4 percent from three, while shooting 54 percent from the floor themselves.
Not only did Jeffers have his second consecutive outstanding game, he also did a splendid defensive job on A&M leading scorer Bernard King, who suffered through a 3-for-16 shooting performance on his way to an eight-point night. Swingman Carlton Brown led the Aggies with 19 points, and Gilchrist finished with 14.
The Billikens (7-4) play Hawaii in the semifinals on Fri., Dec. 29 at 11:30 p.m. (CT).
