ST. LOUIS - No. 7 Arizona held off Saint Louis 68-67 this afternoon in a men's non-conference basketball game before 10,537 fans at Savvis Center. Billiken guard Reggie Bryant's bid to tie the game with three seconds left was ruled a two-point goal, and the Wildcats escaped with a win in a game which they once trailed by as many as 12.
Saint Louis trailed by three with 13 seconds remaining after Wildcats guard Salim Stoudamire calmly buried two free throws. The Billikens quickly moved the ball up the floor, but Bryant ended up with a foot on the three-point arc while attempting what he hoped would be a shot to send the game to overtime.
"I knew that I stepped (forward) a little bit, but knew that I didn't have enough time to step back," Bryant said. "I was trying to get them up into the air and draw the foul. I knew that I stepped close to the line when I tried to make a move on him."
It was a game that Saint Louis was in charge of for the first 25 minutes. Behind good halfcourt defense and an efficient offensive approach, the Billikens surged to a 38-30 halftime lead when sophomore guard Anthony Drejaj buried a triple out of the deep left corner. Saint Louis had pushed its lead to 27-15 on junior forward Izik Ohanon's 15-foot jumper off the left wing.
Bryant drained a trey to start the second half, and SLU still led 46-37 on senior guard Josh Fisher's jumper with 15:36 remaining in the second half. Arizona guard Hassan Adams made a defensive play that sparked the Wildcats on a 13-2 run to claim the lead for good. On a forward overplay on the left wing, Adams knocked the ball away for a breakaway dunk.
Wildcats coach Lute Olson credited his defense. "Saint Louis played really well and played their game as much as they possibly could," he said. "They were patient in the early going when they had us down 10. We felt at that point that we needed to change the tempo of this thing. We went to a trapping defense. Even when they got good shots, they weren't knocking them down like they were in their normal rhythm."
Arizona appeared to be on its way to breaking the game open when point guard Chris Rodgers drilled back-to-back treys to open a 58-50 lead. But Bryant answered with a triple of his own, and the Bills climbed back. SLU senior forward Chris Sloan put together a pair of buckets, and suddenly the Bills trailed 62-60.
Stoudamire nailed a clutch threeball, but Bryant answered with a reverse lay-in, and Arizona led 65-62. After 'Cats forward Andre Iguodala made 1-of-2 free throws, Sloan came through with a traditional three-point play. Arizona still led 66-65 before Staudamire's free throws set the stage for the wild ending."
Stoudamire topped Arizona (2-1) with 19 points, while Iguodala finished with 16 points and a game-high 13 boards. Adams added 14 points, and Rodgers totaled 10. The Wildcats shot only 39.2 percent from the field, but were 40 percent from beyond the arc and 76.9 percent from the line.
Bryant finished with a career-high 24 points with four boards and four assists. Fisher and Drejaj each had a dozen points, while Sloan chipped in with 11. The Bills shot 42.9 percent from the field, 36 percent from three and only 62.5 percent from the line.
"I was pleased with the way we fought," Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "I hope it's a message to our guys that we can compete at a high level."
Saint Louis (3-2) goes back on the road next Saturday to face No. 15 Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
