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St. Louis - Dayton forward Monty Scott poured in 23 points to spoil Senior Night for Saint Louis at Savvis Center as the Flyers slipped past the Billikens 72-70 in overtime in an Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball game. The Flyers snapped the Bills' season-high four-game winning streak and ended their own seven-game road losing streak.
"You have got to credit Dayton for coming in here and executing," said Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "However, that's two straight games that we haven't played well at the defensive end, and we can't think that we're just going to out-score people. That's not the way we're built."
Saint Louis stormed from 29-15 first half deficit to grab a 37-34 halftime lead. Dayton forged by stroking seven treys, but the Bills went on a 19-2 run as their defensive pressure caused problems for the Flyers. Junior center Ian Vouyoukas gave the Bills a 32-31 lead with a fastbreak slam after Kevin Lisch's steal. Sophomore guard Danny Brown added to the advantage with a pair of free throws, but UD guard Warren Williams buried a triple to tie it. After Lisch forced a UD turnover with a five-second call, senior guard Anthony Drejaj drained a threeball out of the right corner to end the half.
"I tried to forewarn our guys that Dayton hammered us the first five minutes of both halves in the game at Dayton, and that happened again here tonight," Soderberg said. "You can't come out and not be ready to defend. They beat us badly off the dribble all night long."
The Billikens seemed to be in good shape early in the second half Vouyoukas scored his 17th point for a 39-34 lead, but the big man wouldn't score the rest of the game. Lisch missed a fastbreak lay-up when he was pressured from behind and Tommie Liddell missed an uncontested tip-in off Brown's missed shot, and that seemed to open the door for the Flyers. Scott tied the game at 41 on a traditional three-point play, and swingman Logan White gave UD the lead with yet another trey.
White buried another triple as UD surged ahead 49-45, but the Bills tied the game on sophomore guard Dwayne Polk's lay-up. On a potential three-point play, Polk missed the free throw that would have given SLU the lead. After a Liddell lay-up tied the game at 51 with a drive to the goal, and junior forward Justin Johnson was fouled going to the boards. He made 1-of-2 free throws to give SLU a one-point edge. UD's White drilled another trey to give UD a 54-52 advantage, and the Flyers went up six on Scott's fastbreak dunk.
The Bills fought back furiously and Lisch nailed a threeball and scored on a drive to the goal for a 62-61 SLU lead a the 1:29 mark. UD forward Charles Little made 1-of-2 tosses to tie the game again. In what could have been a story book finish, Drejaj missed a three that was challenged, but the shot was on line but a little long. The Bills survived UD's shot to win the game in regulation as Little drove along the right of the lane but was short with a bank shot.
"I thought that I had a pretty good look, but there was a big man running at me, and I tried to put as much arc on the ball as possible," Drejaj said. "It felt good, but it just didn't go in."
UD jumped on top right away in the OT session as Scott bombed from long range off a screen to lift the Flyers to a 65-62 advantage. SLU began to have difficulty defending UD's halfcourt offense, and after Scott dunked and forward Norman Plummer scored on a lay-up, the Flyers led by five.
But again the Billikens battled back as Drejaj connected on a trey, Liddell hit 1-of-2 free throws and Lisch's turnaround jumper in the lane tied the game at 70 with 37 seconds left. Lisch was tagged with a foul as UD's Scott maneuvered for the game winning jumper in the lane, and he knocked in both free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining. The Bills got the ball to Lisch on the move, but his long three attempt was deflected as the horn sounded.
"We just made one more big play than Saint Louis did," UD head coach Brian Gregory said. "We tried to be aggressive at both ends of the floor against Vouyoukas in the second half, and it worked for us. We also executed excellently in the overtime."
UD's Williams tossed in 14 points, and Little added 10. UD (14-15, 6-9) scoring leader Brian Roberts scored only six points, but snagged a game-high 12 rebounds and handed out a game-high seven assists. The Flyers shot 50 percent from the field, 57.9 percent from the arc and 78.6 percent from the line. The Flyers' hot shooting compensated for their 18 turnovers. UD dominated the glass 37-26.
Lisch topped the SLU score sheet with 18 points, and Drejaj popped in 14 while contributing a team-high four assists. Liddell topped SLU with eight rebounds, The Bills shot 43.1 percent from the field, 35.3 percent from the arc and 77.8 percent from the free throw line.
Saint Louis (16-11, 10-5) closes the regular-season at La Salle on Saturday in a 1 p.m. (CT) tip-off.
