Feb. 2, 2008

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St. Louis - The Saint Louis Billikens kept a potent Massachusetts offense in check and led wire-to-wire in a 71-59 Atlantic 10 Conference win on Saturday afternoon at Scottrade Center. Tommie Liddell III and Luke Meyer both narrowly missed double-doubles to lead the Billiken offensive charge.

The Billikens jumped out on top with the first four points of the game, before the Minutemen tied things at 4-4. Four different Billikens scored the next four baskets, capped off on a Bryce Husak dunk, as SLU surged to a 12-4 lead almost five minutes into the game. UMass tallied five straight points, but the Billikens answered with six unanswered points. Kevin Lisch drained a mid-range jumper, and Barry Eberhardt scored inside. Liddell's jumper eight minutes in handed the Billikens an 18-9 advantage.

The Minutemen stayed close and inched back to 24-19 with 6:07 left in the first half. Meyer scored the first three points as the Billikens unwrapped an 8-0 burst. Liddell sank a jumper, and Danny Brown's trey built the SLU margin to 32-19 with just over three minutes left in the half. However, UMass closed the opening period of play with a 9-2 run as the Billikens settled for a 34-28 lead at the break.

The Minutemen scored the first two baskets of the second half to close to 34-32, but the Billikens roared back with a sparkling 10-0 run. Brown and Liddell both hit two free throws to ignite the run, and Lisch added a jumper. Liddell's drive in traffic pushed the lead to double-digits, and a Lisch jumper at the 15:36 mark handed the Billikens a 44-32 margin. A UMass basket ended the SLU run, but the Billikens took their largest lead of the day with a 9-2 burst. Lisch sank a jumper, and Eberhardt completed a three-point play. The Minutemen scored on tip-in, but Brown's deep 3-pointer gave the Billikens a 52-36 lead with 12 minutes to play.

UMass chipped away at the lead and finally cut the lead to single digits at 57-49 with less than eight minutes left. Buckets by Liddell and Meyer righted the ship at 61-49. The Minutemen made one more attempt to get back into the game at 62-53, but neither team scored for the next two minutes. Lisch got a jumper from the left to roll in, and two charity tosses by Liddell put the Billikens up 66-53 with 1:44 remaining. The Billikens salted away the game with four free throws in the final minute.

Liddell tied for the team lead with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Meyer had nine points and nine rebounds. Lisch finished with 16 points and four assists, while Danny Brown scored a season-high 14 points, tied his career-high with seven rebounds and added five assists. Gary Forbes led UMass with 20 points but was hounded into a 7-of-18 shooting performance. Ricky Harris, who came into the game averaging 20.0 ppg, finished with just six. The Billiken defense held the Minutemen to 30.3 percent shooting, including 9-of-36 (25.0 percent) in the second half. The Minutemen misfired on all 13 of their attempts from 3-point range in the second half and finished 2-of-21 (9.5 percent) from beyond the arc in the game.

The Billikens improve to 12-9 overall, 3-4 in the A-10. The Minutemen drop to 14-7, 3-4 in the league. The Billikens are back in action on Thursday, February 7, when they host Xavier in an 8 p.m. game televised on ESPN2.

Saint Louis Billikens Men's Basketball