by TYLER HATHAWAY
BUFFALO, N.Y– No. 9 seed Saint Louis shot over 58% from the field while holding a strong Georgia offense to around 35% as the Billikens broke away early and never looked back in a dominant 102-77 win over No. 8 seed Georgia during the NCAA Tournament Midwest Region First Round at KeyBank Center on Thursday night.
“We played super hard, we were really physical,” said Billikens head coach Josh Schertz. “I thought we executed well, and I thought we were connected and together. I’m proud of our guys.”
The Billikens built a 49-32 halftime lead and then opened the second half on a 18-0 run in the first five minutes to seal any doubt.
“We just talked about how it’s a long basketball game,” center Robbie Avila said was the message at the half. “The first 20 minutes were over but we had 20 more minutes left to play. We knew if we came out strong and really reset the tone in those first few minutes we could really take their will away.”
“It was amazing,” said guard Amari McCottry of the run. “It just kind of felt like we were getting closer and closer to victory. Shout out to the guys, we didn’t get complacent, we kept our heads on our shoulders and just kept going.”
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“We talked at halftime that the first five minutes would really establish what the game would be like in the second half,” Schertz explained. “If you can go out and throw a punch there you can kind of knock them out.”
While the elite offensive performance is par for the course for a Saint Louis squad that ranks tenth in the country in points per game (87.8), the defensive play from the Billikens was arguably more impressive.
They limited a Bulldogs offense averaging nearly 90 points per game to 13 points below their average, and a chunk of it came when the game was already out of hand.
“We did a really good job defensively,” said Schertz. “We got a bunch of stops, we were able to get a couple turnovers, get in transition, and that’s when we’re at our best. We’ve always been a team where the defense fuels the offense and not the other way around and I thought our defense tonight was great.”
Ball movement and getting the rock inside was crucial for a Billikens team that despite their success was cold from beyond the three-point arc for the first two-thirds of the game. All told, Saint Louis finished with 66 points in the paint. Senior guard Dion Brown had 18 of them.
“We have an offense where if a guy drives you better make the cut,” said Brown. “I made the cut, guys got me open. I was able to hit guys, find seams, and it just worked out in my favor today.”
“If they take away the three, we got lanes,” said McCottry of how the offense adapts. “If they take away the lanes and flood on drives, we have shooters. Today they were more so playing the three a lot. For the most part we were getting to the rim, and then if they flooded we would kick it out to our shooters.”
Saint Louis had six players finish the night in double figures with three more knocking on the door.
“I think that our depth has been key all year, especially tonight against a team like Georgia,” Schertz explained. “They’re so big and physical, guys can wear down when the game is so fast paced. You’re in transition offense, guys are getting pressed. There’s no way guys can play 35 minutes, not well.”
“Depth has been our calling card. It might not be somebody’s night every night, but we have so many options that it’s usually somebody’s night every night.”
The Billikens stumbled down the stretch of the regular season and A-10 tournament after a 24-1 start.
“We finished our last eight games 4-4,” said Brown. “So to come out here today and just play Saint Louis Basketball, it’s not surprising to us because we’ve been doing it, but it is refreshing to say that we can still do this.”
Brown finished with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists. McCottry paired 13 points with nine rebounds and three assists. Avila turned in 12 points, five rebounds and five assists. Ishan Sharma (12), Kellen Thames (11) and Brady Dunlap (11) also were in double figures for the Billikens. Quentin Jones (9), Paul Otieno (9) and Trey Green (7) rounded out the scoring.
Jeremiah Wilkinson was the only one who could get anything going for Georgia. The sophomore provided the Bulldogs with 30 points off the bench and made six of Georgia’s 10 three-pointers.
Saint Louis advances to face No. 1 seed Michigan on Saturday. A 12:10 tip-off is scheduled at the KeyBank Center.
”I think we’ve shown that we can compete at a high level, with any given team,” said Avila. “Whether it’s in our conference with A-10 teams or Power Five teams. We just came in and treated it like another game and we were ready to compete at a high level.”
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