St. Louis - Saint Louis senior guard Marque Perry poured in a game-high 21 points as the Billikens slipped past Dayton 63-55 in a non-conference game this afternoon at Savvis Center. Senior guard Drew Diener popped in four treys as the Bills recorded their second straight home victory.
"I'm happy for our players that they experienced playing solid basketball, defending and doing the best they can on the glass gives us a chance to compete against a quality opponent," head coach Brad Soderberg said. "We're going to play solid half-court defense. We're going to be patient offensively and get the shots we want."
The Billikens twice built eight-points lead in the first half, but couldn't expand the margin. Dayton trailed 31-26 at the half.
Perry scored three quick baskets to begin the second half, and the Bills led 37-30 when UD began its first surge. UD leading scorer Brooks Hall scored on a breakaway off a steal to cap a 10-2 run and give the Flyers their first lead of the second half with 12:23 to play.
After Flyers forward Keith Waleskowski, who finished with 17 points and 12 boards, knocked in one of two free throws, Diener responded with a triple and Perry flipped in a lay-up high off the glass over UD center Sean Finn. The Bills reclaimed the lead and pushed it to 51-46 with 6:43 remaining on senior center Kenny Brown's free throw.
Dayton ran off six unanswered points culminated by Finn's slam off a lob to go up 52-51 at the 5:03 mark. Perry and Waleskowski traded free throws, and Billiken forward Chris Sloan drilled two more to give SLU a 55-54 lead that it would not relinquish.
SLU's Brown dunked off a pretty feed from Perry and nailed the free throw to complete the three-point play. The Bills led 58-54 with 2:06 remaining and were able to close the game out with Sloan and Perry dropping in 3-of-4 free throws.
"Out defense was pretty good in the second half and certainly gave us a chance to win," Flyers head coach Oliver Purnell said. "Coming down the stretch, they made some plays driving to the basket, made some free throws and won it. It was hard to pinpoint any particular thing. It was that kind of game where anything could have swung it."
Saint Louis held Dayton (4-2) to 39.2 percent shooting from the field and 28.6 percent from three-point distance. Flyers leading scorer Brooks Hall knocked in 10 points, four below his average, on 4-of-11 marksmanship from the floor and only 1-of-4 from threeland.
"That was the best 40 minutes of our season collectively," Brown said. "We knew defense was going to win the game, and we stepped up and played defense as hard as we could."
The Billikens shot 46.9 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from three. Although the Flyers out-rebounded SLU 35-27, the Billikens took better care of the ball with only seven turnovers compared to UD's 13. Diener finished with 12 points, and Sloan added 11. Brown led the Bills on the boards with 11 caroms.
"It takes a lot of pressure off Marque when defenders have to go out on the two other perimeter players on the wing," said Diener, who was 4-of-5 from long distance. "As guards, we need to concern ourselves with rebounding and defending, too. We shouldn't worry about the shooting, because we've got guys who have proven that they can shoot."
The Billikens (3-3) continue their three-game homestand by hosting Grambling State on Wed., Dec. 18, for a 7:10 p.m. tip-off.
