St. Louis - Playing their second overtime game in three outings, the Saint Louis Billikens fell 54-53 to Temple at Scottrade Center on Sunday afternoon. The Owls scored the first five points of the extra session, but the Billikens rallied with four consecutive points. The Billikens made a defensive stand and took possession of the ball with the shot clock turned off, but were unable to get off the game-winning shot.
The Billiken defense forced Temple to miss its first eight shots of the game, and baskets by III and Luke Meyer pushed the Billikens to an early 4-0 lead. The Owls closed to 6-5, but consecutive hoops by Danny Brown boosted the Billikens to a 10-5 margin. However, the Owls scored the next 11 points to move to a 16-10 lead with 4:03 left before halftime. Temple still led 28-12 before the Billikens reeled off eight unanswered points to close the half. Kevin Lisch scored on a drive, and Liddell added a short shot in the paint. Liddell hit scored on a layup with 40 seconds left, and after a Temple miss, he tallied again on a drive at the halftime buzzer to push SLU to a 20-18 lead at the break.
In the second half, two Meyer free throws gave SLU a four-point lead, but then neither squad led by more than three for the next seven minutes. Dionte Christmas sank a trey to tie the contest at 32-32, but the Billikens received a jump hook from Bryce Husak and a long trey from Brown for a 37-32 advantage at the 12:02 mark. Temple eventually tied the tilt at 39-39, but Lisch scored five straight on a 3-pointer and two free throws for a 44-39 lead with just over five minutes left. However, Christmas converted consecutive 3-pointers to push the Owls back into the lead at 45-44. Two free throws by Christmas gave Temple a 47-44 lead, but Meyer drilled a trey to tie the game with 1:20 left. Mark Tyndale scored inside for Temple with 47 seconds left, but Lisch had the answer on SLU's next possession to knot the game at 49-49 with 30.5 seconds remaining. Temple worked for the final shot, but missed at the end of regulation.
Temple hit two free throws and a 3-pointer to take a 54-49 lead just over one minute into overtime. Paul Eckerle hit two free throws to put the Billikens on the scoreboard, and two charity tosses by Meyer cut the deficit to one at 54-53 with 1:51 left. After a Temple miss, the Billikens' shot to take the lead was blocked. However, SLU forced a miss by the Owls and took possession with 24 seconds remaining. SLU worked the ball around the perimeter, but the ball deflected off a Temple player and then off a SLU player to force a turnover with less than one second left as the Owls escaped.
Kevin Lisch led the Billikens with 17 points, while III narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Dionte Christmas led Temple with 20 points. The Billiken defense clamped down on the Owls and allowed Temple to shoot just 34.5 percent from the field. SLU also outrebounded Temple 38-33.
The Billikens are now 10-8 overall, 1-3 in the A-10. The Owls improve to 8-8 on the season, 2-1 in the conference. The Billikens return to action on Saturday, Jan. 26, when they travel to La Salle for a 1 p.m. (CT) game.
