ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis senior guard Marque Perry poured in 22 points as the Billikens shut down East Carolina 56-42 this afternoon in a Conference USA game at Savvis Center. The Billikens limited the Pirates to 32.5 percent shooting from the field and held ECU without a field goal for the final 11 minutes of the first half.
"That's my definition of a good week right there," said Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "Two wins puts us back in the race for getting into the conference tournament. In both games, we were able defend extremely well, take care of the ball and keep people off the offensive glass. That's become our formula for victory, so I feel good about that."
Behind Perry's 15 first half points, the Billikens took charge in the opening session and led 30-14 at the break. While appearing to still be playing off the momentum of Wednesday's win over No. 2 Louisville, SLU jumped to a 10-3 lead. After a quick timeout, ECU responded with an 8-2 run of its own to take its last lead at 11-10 with 12:33 to play. Izik Ohanon's jumper broke a 13-all tie, and the Bills closed the half with a 17-1 run. Pirate forward Erroyl Bing's free throw was the only ECU point in the last 11:29.
"They play extremely physical and are very good defensively," Pirates head coach Bill Herrion said. "They bump you and grind you, but we needed to react and adjust. They dictated the game defensively with their physical play.
"In the first half, they just whacked the crap out of us," Herrion continued. "They came out and said, `OK, we're guarding you. You're not going here. You're not going there. You're not passing it.' And we were just so soft on offense."
The Pirates made a bid to climb into the game by scoring the first four points of the second half, but the Bills pumped the lead to 19 on Josh Fisher's trey with 11:37 left. The Bills methodically kept ECU at bay, and when Perry slipped in for a lay-up at the 3:45 mark, SLU led 52-34.
ECU's (12-10, 3-8) 42 points tied their season low which they set in a loss at DePaul. Bing led ECU with 11 points, and guard Travis Holcomb-Faye finished with 10. The Pirates out-rebounded the Bills 31-29.
The Billikens shot 45.1 percent from the floor, but only 13.3 percent from three. The Bills turned 15 ECU turnovers into 16 points. Fisher and Chris Sloan joined Perry in double figures with 10 points apiece. Senior center Kenny Brown led the club with six boards while adding eight points and two blocks.
"The win over Louisville gave us a big confidence boost," Sloan said. "This might have been the biggest game of our year considering where we stand in the conference. We knew that coming in, and we thought we responded to it."
"You could tell our intensity was still there from the Louisville game," Brown said. "Hopefully, we can carry that on to Cincinnati."
The Billikens (10-12, 4-7) travel to Cincinnati on Tue., Feb. 18, for a 7:05 p.m. (CST) start.
