ST. LOUIS - Fourth-ranked Cincinnati held off Saint Louis 54-50 tonight in a Conference USA men's basketball game before 12,103 at Savvis Center. The Billikens once again played without junior guard Marque Perry, who missed his third consecutive game and fourth of this season after suffering a concussion. He has been held out of competition since experiencing mild headaches resulting from a collision in the Marquette game on Sat., Jan. 12.
"Whether we have Marque or not, we need to win these types of games if we want this program to reach the goals that we've set," Billikens head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "Although we struggled to score in the last five minutes of the second half, we lost the game in the last five minutes of the first half when we let that eight-point lead slip away. If we go to halftime leading by five or six, who knows what the outcome might have been."
After Steve Logan's lay-up, Cincinnati led 11-8 midway through the first half, but the Billikens responded with a 12-0 run to take their largest lead of the game. Junior center Chris Braun supplied seven points in the rally, and sophomore guard Jason Edwin contributed the other five as the Bills bolted to a 20-11 margin with 6:28 remaining.
Edwin drained his third triple of the first half with 5:19 left to give SLU a 23-15 edge, but that was Saint Louis' last points of the half. UC closed the half with an impressive 15-0 run as Logan and backcourt mates Immanuel McElroy and Leonard Stokes supplied all the points. The 'Cats carried a 30-23 lead to the intermission.
"Our defense let down, and we had a couple turnovers that led to that 15-0 run," Fisher said. "But they have great players, and every team is going to have a run during the game."
Saint Louis forward Chris Sloan and center Kenny Brown scored the first two bucket of the second half, and the Bearcats couldn't create any breathing room. With 7:20 remaining, Billiken junior guard Josh Fisher drilled a NBA-range three to tie the game at 43. Saint Louis had three possessions to take the lead, but couldn't convert. The Billikens also would go through another dry spell from the field for nearly seven minutes.
"Our defense generally does that, and that's why we've won," Bearcats head coach Bob Huggins said. "At some point in the game, our defense generally creates some offense for us. That's the point in time when it did."
Logan took over and knocked down two free throws to give UC the lead for good at the 5:39 mark. When freshman forward Jason Maxiell collected his first basket of the game off a feed from Logan with two minutes remaining, the 'Cats had a safe 49-45 lead. Maxiell knocked down a pair of tosses to push Cincinnati to its largest lead of the night 53-46 with 32 ticks remaining. That allowed the 'Cats to withstand two late hoops by the Bills' Fisher.
Cincinnati (18-1, 6-0) won its 18th-consecutive game to remain unbeaten in C-USA action. The Bearcats' 54 points was their lowest out-put of the year and the four-point margin of victory was their closest of the season. With a game-high 25 points, Logan moved into fifth place on the C-USA all-time scoring list. Logan also ranks third on the C-USA all-time list for threes with 218.
The 'Cats shot 42.9 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from three. Maxiell led all rebounders with 14.
"No matter what Saint Louis' record is, they come out with a lot of intensity and force you out of the offense," Logan said. "So I expected this. It's tough to win here every year."
Edwin led Saint Louis with 15 points, and junior guard Drew Diener added 10. Fisher posted a game high five assists, and Brown led the Bills in rebounding with seven. SLU shot a season-low 34.5 percent from the field, and the Bills were actually better from threeland at 37.5 percent. The Billikens held their own against C-USA's second-best rebounding unit by battling the 'Cats even on the boards at 35 apiece.
"We walk away from this game saying that we've got to get better," Romar said. "It's still a loss, but I applaud the effort that our guys brought tonight."
The Billikens (9-10, 3-3) complete their three-game C-USA homestand at Savvis Center on Sat., Jan. 26, at 1 p.m. when Marquette pays a visit.
