CINCINNATI • St. Louis University did Wednesday night what no Atlantic 10 Conference team had done in almost six years, knocking off Xavier on its home court. The Billikens also did something they hadn't done in more than five years, beating Xavier anywhere.
But this wasn't a case of SLU beating the odds, of doing something that shocked them. When the clock hit zero, with Xavier fans already heading to the exit, you could see it was something they fully expected to happen.
"I couldn't be happier," senior Brian Conklin said. "I knew this was the year we could get 'em. I felt it."
In what could be the biggest win in Rick Majerus' five seasons at SLU, the Billikens got a victory on the road that figures to reverberate throughout the league. SLU led by 14 points in the second half, lost all of it, then fought back to retake the lead and closed the game by hitting nine consecutive free throws and 13 of its final 14 to pull out a 73-68 win over the Musketeers.
"To finally get Xavier, it's fantastic," said Conklin, who scored 19 points in his first win over Xavier after five losses. "They're always known as the cream of the crop in the league. To come here and take it on their home court, it's great."
"It's a big win," said guard Kwamain Mitchell. "It gets us back on track from the beginning of the year when we were on our run. This win's going to keep us going for conference games. We have some mistakes have to work on; we'll work on those and get better."
SLU improves to 16-4 overall, 4-2 in A-10 play, and is in a five-way tie for first but with the edge of having a win on the league's toughest court in a conference where road wins are hard to come by. Xavier, which is struggling but still considered among the best in the league, is 13-7, 4-3.
Xavier had won an Atlantic 10 Conference-record 43 consecutive games at home, going back to a loss to St. Joseph's on Feb. 28, 2006, more than a year before Majerus was hired at SLU. SLU hadn't beaten Xavier, which has won five consecutive A-10 regular-season titles, since 2007 and last won at Xavier on Jan. 22, 2006.
This is a win that figures to keep on giving. It gives SLU's NCAA Tournament credentials a big boost with a road win over a top 50 RPI team and inserts them in the thick of the race for the league title, especially now that the toughest part of their schedule is done.
Of course, as Majerus noted, all that doesn't mean much if SLU doesn't take care of business the rest of the way, starting with a game at UMass on Saturday. The Minutemen are one of the five teams at 4-2.
"As soon as they count it for two, then it's a more significant win," Majerus said. "Consistency throughout is very important. I won't say anything to them tonight, I'll let them enjoy it. They worked very hard for the most part. This is all for naught if we lose something at home."
"It's ours to lose and it's ours to win," Conklin said. "I'd like to take the latter and keep going strong."
It spoke volumes to SLU's composure that it didn't fold amid the din, scoring eight consecutive points after Xavier tied the game. "We told our guys, they'll have a run, and when they have that run, we have to keep our composure and hit right back and we did," Mitchell said.
The Billikens made free throws, which is no small feat for them, and got defensive stops when they needed them. Lights-out 3-point shooting had staked them to a big lead — Rob Loe finished with 14 points and Cody Ellis with 11 — but in the end, it was their shooting from 15 feet that won it. In the final 6:13 of the game, SLU missed just one of 14 free throws. Xavier would cut the lead to three points, commit a foul, and SLU would go to the line and make two. As close as Xavier got, the Musketeers never had a chance to tie the score again.
Mike McCall hit two free throws to make it 73-68 with 19.5 seconds to play and when Mark Lyons, who had a spectacular 27 points, airballed a 3-point try with 9.7 seconds to go, that was it.
