Columbia, Mo.--Saint Louis let a 10-point second-half lead slip away this afternoon at Missouri as the Tigers rallied for a 77-73 victory in a non-conference men's basketball game before a sold-out crowd of 13,142 at the Hearnes Center. Sophomore forward Kareem Rush poured in 25 points as the Tigers avenged last year's loss to the Billikens at the Trans World Dome.
"It was a great college basketball experience, yet it was disappointing to lose the game in the last two minutes after we controlled the game for the first 38 minutes," Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We missed some free throws late, made a couple of mistakes and it got away from us. Credit Missouri for making a couple of big plays down the stretch, too."
Although the Billikens rely on their seasoned frontcourt players to control games, it was their backcourt that got them started as sophomores Marque Perry and Josh Fisher scored the Bills first eight points. Fisher's lay-up gave the Bills an 8-6 lead with 17:11 left in the half. Except when the Tigers briefly took a 27-26 lead with 5:13 remaining in the half on a pair of Clarence Gilbert free throws, the Bills held the lead throughout the half.
Saint Louis closed the half with a 12-4 run to take a 38-31 lead into the intermission. Sophomore guard Drew Diener poured in seven points on a trey and four free tosses to spark the Bills into the break.
The Billikens maintained their working margin throughout most of the second half. On two occasions, the Tigers rallied to within two, but the Bills answered. Mizzou freshman Rickey Paulding brought the Tigers within two at the 15-21 mark, but Justin Tatum answered with a jumper. Tiger freshman center Arthur Johnson knocked in a pair of free throws at the 13:08 mark to again pull Mizzou within two, but Fisher's lay-up again gave SLU some breathing room.
The Billikens built their largest lead to 10 with 10:21 to play on Fisher's trey. Saint Louis led 69-61 with 4:14 to play when Mizzou made its 16-4 run to close the game. Gilbert drained a pair of crucial threes, and Rush's fade-away jumper with 1:33 remaining put Mizzou on top for good. In that stretch, Saint Louis missed a tip-in, missed two free throws including the front end of a one-and-one situation, a missed a wide open trey and committed two turnovers.
Saint Louis still had a chance to send the game to overtime when Gilbert made one of two free throws with 14 seconds left putting the Tigers on top 75-73. Perry took dribbled into the Mizzou lane looking for the tying shot, but lost his handle and the Billikens' chances slipped away.
"When we still had a good lead with three minutes to play, I thought we were going to win," Perry said. "But we know that Rush and Gilbert can take over games quickly with their shooting, and they did that."
The Saint Louis defense again was solid as the Billikens limited the Tigers to 40.4 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from three. Gilbert finished with 17 points, but was only 5-of-16 from the floor and had missed all six of his three-point attempts until he drained his final fateful pair. Paulding contributed 13 off the bench.
Fisher posted a career high with 14 points in his first career start and played a career-high 32 minutes. Tatum finished with a season-high 13 points and topped the Bills with six boards.
Saint Louis (5-2) completed its two game road swing with a split. The Billikens return to Savvis Center to host Dayton on Sat., Dec. 16.
