SLU Men's Basketball Game Notes & Information
Game No. 6	Saint Louis (5-0) vs. Santa Clara (6-0)
Date // Time	Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025 // 6 p.m. CT / 4 p.m. PT
Location	Palm Desert, Calif. (Acrisure Arena)
Acrisure Invitational	Schedule | Tickets
Radio	104.1 FM / 1120 AM KMOX | Varsity Network App (Bob Ramsey, Earl Austin Jr.)
TV	CBS Sports Network (Ed Cohen, Dan Dickau)
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Series History	Santa Clara leads 4-1
Game Notes	Saint Louis

WHAT'S ON TAP?

• Saint Louis heads to the Coachella Valley for the Acrisure Invitational, which will be held Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving Week at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif.
• The Billikens begin the tourney on Thanksgiving against Santa Clara in a 6 p.m. (CT) tip. The other game of the bracket, Minnesota vs. Stanford, follows.
• The winners will meet at 6 p.m. (CT) on Friday for the Acrisure Invitational title game, with the consolation game to follow.
• The Acrisure Invitational is part of the Acrisure Series, which returns to the Coachella Valley for its third consecutive year, reaffirming its position as the largest multi-team college basketball event in the nation. Taking place from November 25–28, 2025, the tournament showcases more than 20 NCAA Division I men's basketball programs.

FOLLOWING THE ACTION

• Thursday's game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. Ed Cohen and Dan Dickau have the call.
• 104.1 FM / 1120 AM KMOX is the home for Billiken Basketball on the radio. Billiken Hall of Famers and longtime SLU men's basketball radio partners Bob Ramsey and Earl Austin Jr. will the call the action for all SLU games, both at home and on the road. Billiken Basketball sends a special salute to Rammer, who is in his 40th season as the radio voice of SLU hoops. Austin is in year No. 35. Thursday's game will air on 1120 AM, and be joined in progress on 104.1 FM following other programming.

NEWS & NOTES

• At 5-0, the Billikens are off to their best start since 2020.
• The Billikens feature one of the top-rated offenses in the country. They score 95.1 ppg, 12th in the NCAA. SLU is No. 3 in the NCAA in free-throw percentage (.832) and ninth nationally in effective FG% (.619). Additionally, SLU's 11.0 3-pointers made per game rank 26th in the nation.
• The Bills are equally efficient on the defensive end. Opponents shoot just 36.0 percent against them, 17th nationally. 
• Saint Louis' 33.4 rebounds on the defensive glass checks in at No. 6 in the NCAA.
• The Billikens feature a balanced scoring attack with seven players averaging 9.0 ppg or more. They rank 16th in the NCAA in bench points per game (39.4).
• Amari McCottry (14.8 ppg) has led the Bills in scoring twice. He was named the A-10 co-Player of the Week two weeks ago.
• Robbie Avila, who has been named to a throng of preseason Watch Lists, averages 13.6 points and 2.6 assists. His .583 shooting mark from 3 ranks ninth in the NCAA.
• Dion Brown is coming off a season-high 21 points against Purdue Fort Wayne. The 6-3 guard leads SLU with 7.4 rpg. 
• Robbie Avila has been named to preseason Watch Lists for the Naismith Trophy, Oscar Robertson Trophy, Wooden Award and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award. Last season he averaged 17.3 points and 6.9 rebounds. He led all centers in Division I in 3s made per game and assists per game. 
• Billiken head coach Josh Schertz is in his 18th season as a collegiate head coach. His .775 winning percentage ranks No. 8 among active coaches in the NCAA.

MTE HISTORY

• The Billikens have won nine in-season bracketed MTEs in their history, the last being the 2021 Cancun Challenge when SLU defeated Illinois State and SFA at the Hard Rock Hotel in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
• The last California-based MTE was a memorable one. In the 2011 76 Classic in Anaheim, the Billikens beat Boston College, Villanova and Oklahoma, and as a result, SLU entered the top 25 the next week as Rick Majerus' Billikens entered the national spotlight for the first time during his tenure.
• SLU's nine MTE titles are as follows – 1948 Sugar Bowl, 1949 Cotton Bowl, 1951 Sugar Bowl, 1960 Kentucky Invitational, 1971 Saint Louis Holiday Invitational, 1972 St. Louis Holiday Invitational, 1986 Hawaii Pacific Tournament, 2011 76 Classic and the 2021 Cancun Challenge.

ABOUT SANTA CLARA

• The Broncos enter Thursday's matchup 6-0 on the season.
• Guard Christian Hammond is Santa Clara's top scorer at 17.0 ppg. He scored a career-high 27 points in the Broncos' win over Nevada.
• Jake Ensminger leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio. The 6-9 guard has dished out 26 assists to just one turnover through Santa Clara's first six games.
• The Broncos are among the country's top offensive rebounding teams at 16.8 per game.
• Santa Clara has three bonafide shot blockers and enter the week ranking eighth in the NCAA with 6.8 blocked shots per game. Bukky Oboye, a 7-1 center, ranks 19th in the NCAA with 2.6 blocks per contest.
• Herb Sendek is in his 10th season at Santa Clara. The Broncos have made the NIT three out of the last four seasons and have had winning seasons in each of the last seven years. Sendek's 32-year coaching resume also includes stops at Miami (Ohio), NC State and Arizona State.

SERIES HISTORY

• Saint Louis and Santa Clara are meeting for the sixth time. Santa Clara owns a 4-1 series advantage.
• This is the second year in a row the Bills have played Santa Clara. Last season, the Broncos prevailed 85-78 in the Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase at The Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. 
• The teams played in 2012-13 in an on-campus game of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic at Chaifetz Arena. Santa Clara took home a 74-62 win, one of just seven losses for the A-10-champion Billikens that season.
• Saint Louis and Santa Clara played a home-and-home series in the early 1990s, with each team winning on its home court.
• The first game of the series came in 1975-76 at the UCLA Bruin Classic at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. The Broncos won that one 69-66.
• The Billikens are 2-0 all-time in games played on Thanksgiving. They defeated Hartford in Las Vegas on Nov. 22, 2001, and Boston College in Anaheim, Calif., on Nov. 24, 2011.