I’m never quite sure what to say about games like this, where SLU (or any team) has to overcome a barrage of its own mistakes to win. SLU should have won in regulation by five, but instead won in overtime by four and the game was in doubt to the very end. This year’s marketing campaign should have been: “SLU! It’s never easy!”

When the saving factor in the game is Willie Reed’s free throw shooting, well, who saw that coming.

Not that there weren’t good things. SLU held Duquesne to 33.3 percent shooting in the second half (down from 58.3 percent in the first; Duquesne coach Ron Everhart praised SLU’s defensive adjustments). Tommie Liddell was all over the place. Barry Eberhardt continues to score.

In its past two games, SLU has scored 166 points. You have to go back to the start of the last Soderberg season to find consecutive games with that many points: SLU beat Louisiana Tech 87-65 then beat Lamar 82-69. Both of those were in regulation. SLU followed that up witha 33 point effort against Texas A&M.

At 13-9, SLU is a game ahead of where they were at this point last season.

Kevin Lisch led SLU with 21 points. It’s the first time this season SLU has had players score more than 20 points in consecutive games. The leading rebounder was “Team” with 9. (Those would be rebounds that weren’t grabbed by anyone, such as ones that went out of bounds.) Tommie Liddell was the leading human with seven.

Duquesne was averaging 24 3’s a game. At the end of regulation, they had 15. Their 19 3-point tries, even allowing for overtime, was a season low.

SLU is 1-1 in overtime this season. Last season, they were 1-3.

SLU’s PPP was 1.00. That’s the fifth time this year it’s been 1.0.

SLU had 28 points in the paint. Its past two games have been two of its best for inside scoring all season.

Duquesne had just three points off offensive rebounds and had no fast break points. One of the reasons for fewer fast break points is SLU had just 12 turnovers. Most fast break points come off TOs.

With the leisurely pace of the game, Duquesne’s starters stayed in. Aaraon Jackson played the full 45. Damian Saunders and Bill Clark played 40 before fouling out. Jason Duty played 38. Eric Evans played 35. Majerus talked of their depth afterward, but the Dukes played most of the game with six players.

Lisch had four fouls, which kept him out off Duquesne stud Aaron Jackson. At times, Lisch, Liddell, Cassity and Eckerle guarded Jackson. Lisch had a season high 22 against Kent State in overtime.  His 21 in overtime against Duquesne is No. 2.  He had 20 in regulation against Liberty.

When Duquesne’s Bill Clark fouled out with 1:08 to go in overtime, ref Gene Steratore signalled 30, Clark, but it was announced as 3, Eric Evans. Clark started going to the bench, knowing he had five fouls, but then headed back when he heard Evans’ name announced. Lisch then made the first free throw before the refs clarified things and said that Clark was done. Duquesne coach Ron Everhart wanted Lisch’s free throw wiped out because of the mistake, but the refs ruled that because it was a dead ball situation, Clark having not left the game wasn’t a mistake that required the game to be replayed from the point of the error. If the clock had run before the mistake was caught, they’d have gone back to the previous dead ball and replayed the game from there.

Everhart said the two key plays in the game were Lisch’s 3 to start the second half and his NBA-length beat the clock 3 to start overtime.

Majerus was high on Liddell’s play after the game. He had 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Majerus liked his defense. With the short lineup SLU used, Liddell ended up playing the 4 spot, though at times he was the 3, the 2 and the 1. He passed Rich Niemann and is 10th on the all-time SLU rebounding list with 691. Right now, he’s with Anthony Bonner and Roland Gray as the only SLU players in the top 10 in scoring and rebounding. He needs 16 assists to pass H Waldman for 10th on the all-time list. If Liddell does that, he’ll be the only player in school history currently in the top 10 in all three categories.

There’s no stopping Barry Eberhardt! In the past two games, he’s made 15 of 22 shots for 36 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Of course, those two missed free throws at the end were almost costly.

Paul Eckerle got 25 minutes, a byproduct of SLU needing more guards to keep up with the shorter quicker Dukes. For one of the few times all year, Majerus took issue with the foul on Eckerle on the rebound at the end of overtime. He called it a phantom call and said he was interested to see the tape. Eckerle told me he didn’t think he even touched Jackson on the play.

Kwamain Mitchell had 10 points, just two assists and Majerus said he was terrible on defense in the first half, the worst he’s been all season. And, in the type of validation the plus-minus stat loves, Mitchell was a whopping minus-11 in the first half, easily the worst on the team. Majerus felt he picked up nicely in the second half and overtime.

For the first time this season, Brian Conklin didn’t start as Majerus went short against Duquesne. Conklin played a season-low five minutes and was so surprised when he was told to go in in the second half that he took off his sweats and didn’t have his jersey on. He had two points for the third straight game.

Kyle Cassity got the start in Conklin’s place and continued to show progress. He hit a 3 — the crowd seems to still watch these with amazement — matched his season high with five points and blocked a shot. It was a good block to, done just before the ball hit its peak, a real highlight moment.  I thought it was his first, but he had one in the Kent State game. His 33 minutes were a career high. One of my favorite moments in the game had Cassity coming into the game. At the scorers table, he said he was in for Conklin, then ran on to the court and was surprised to find Conklin wasn’t in the game. He went in for Eberhardt instead.

It was Brett Thompson’s birthday, but he didn’t play. In a game where Thompson didn’t match up well at all, he stayed on the bench.

8 of 10 free throw shooting for Willie Reed. After the Temple game, he was shooting 37 percent from the field. Since then, he’s made 20 of 26. He had four turnovers which Majerus described as being strength turnovers, namely that Reed isn’t strong enough to hold on to the ball right now.

SLU is 3-1 in their past four games reffed by Gene Steratore.

When Duquesne called time with 59.4 seconds to go in overtime, Duquesne’s Andre Jackson said something to referee Mike Roberts and Roberts told him to get back in his team’s huddle.

As I figured out the plus-minus, I thought how easy it would have been to do Duquesne’s, since they made very few substitutions. There may have been two or three total in the first half. I can’t really explain why Brian Conklin in 5 minutes of playing time was a plus-9. I’ll have to check what was going on when he was on the court. Liddell was also +9, which made a lot more sense.

The numbers:

Conklin +9

Liddell +9

Reed +6

Lisch +5

Eckerle 0

Eberhardt -1

Cassity -2

Mitchell -6