Saint Louis’ defense overwhelms Butler
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
INDIANAPOLIS”Maybe Butler isn’t overrated or too unathletic.
Maybe Saint Louis is just really, really good.
It took less than 72 hours for that realization to crystallize locally and nationally, after Saint Louis followed Tuesday’s upset of No. 24 Virginia Commonwealth with a 65-61 outclassing of the Bulldogs on Friday night in the second game of their season series. Any future meeting would occur in the postseason.
The win kept the Billikens atop the Atlantic 10 with four games left to play, a game ahead of VCU and two in front of Butler, while holding tiebreakers over both. It also moved Saint Louis’ record to 13-2 in the 15 games since senior point guard Kwamain Mitchell returned from a broken foot.
Saint Louis’ win secured a sweep of the season series in a Midwestern rivalry played at tournament intensity, particularly when Dwayne Evans and Roosevelt Jones were in the game together. The two went at it with frenzied zeal – mostly to the benefit of both offenses – but it undoubtedly raised the already physical nature of the game to another level. A strong traveling group of Billikens fans – making themselves known throughout the night with chants of Let’s go Bills! and, afterward, This is our house! – also took the pitch inside Hinkle Fieldhouse up a notch, and foretold great things if these teams stay together in the A-10.
What stood out was not just that Saint Louis beat Butler again, but how they did it. The Billikens simply overwhelmed the home side with their rare combination of brute force, team speed and suffocating defense, racing out to a nine-point lead midway through the second half and holding onto the lead during a tense final five minutes. Much like the first meeting at Chaifetz Arena, there was absolutely nothing about this game that felt like an upset.
The Bulldogs could have, perhaps should have won this game.
Both teams played well, Butler coach Brad Stevens said. I thought we played exceptionally well in the first 20 minutes.
But the Bulldogs actually presented warning signs, enduring a missed dunk by Khyle Marshall and an intercepted pass by Rotnei Clarke to start the second half before going into a serious funk, netting only seven points in the next seven minutes. For the half, they were 9-of-25 from the floor with seven turnovers.
Of course, Butler wasn’t out there alone. One reason the home team hit a wall is because Saint Louis kicked its defense into overdrive. This is the sixth time I’ve seen them in person or on television this season, and all have had the same theme: the Billikens dominate on defense.
We come with the same mindset every game, Evans said. We pressure. We make people play against five guys on defense and don’t let up too many easy buckets.
The biggest adjustment, however, was Billikens coach Jim Crews’ decision to have his perimeter players attack off the dribble. Speed supplied all five buckets in the lucrative first three minutes and change of the second half. Evans, Saint Louis’ leading scorer at about 12 points per game, struggled all night to score against Jones in the post. Evans took Jones off the dribble for a left-handed layup in the first minute. Then Mike McCall Jr. blew past Alex Barlow for an easy two. Seconds later, McCall Jr. had a steal, creating a fast-break situation in which Evans beat the Bulldogs down the court for another score. Then it was Mitchell’s turn to make the Bulldogs pay for having slower guards. His two layups capped a 10-2 run and enabled Saint Louis to seize a lead for the first time since 15 minutes remained in the first half.
Stevens desperately used a full timeout, down 39-36 with 16:49 to play, but the damage was done, and Butler would never recover, let alone tie the game.
The start of the second half was the difference, Stevens said. We stalled. Their guards got into the paint too easily. They’re fast. Mike McCall is fast. Jordair Jett is really fast, and Kwamain Mitchell is just as fast as Jett. McCall and Mitchell, those two guards are really good. They’ve got a lot going for them.
Clarke, Butler’s star, fought his way to a 13-point night, but needed 11 shots to do it and only had two assists to go with six turnovers. In a charged environment that Clarke normally lives for, it counts as a bad night – especially when he took one shot in the final six minutes and fumbled the ball away with Butler down four and 16 seconds left.
Meanwhile, Marshall picked up some of that malaise he suffered in St. Louis. He had just two defensive boards to go with his five points and sat for more than nine minutes in the latter part of the second half as Butler folded for good. Stevens is struggling with how to get Marshall involved in the offense.
The good news for the Bulldogs is that they’ll get seven days off to reset before visiting VCU.
It’s disappointing whenever you lose a game, said Jones, but to lose to a team twice the way we did mistake-wise and everything else hurts even more. Our perimeter defense was off in the second half.
Kellen Dunham appeared to be having a coming-of-age game in the first half, scoring 14 points, but tried only four shots after that, missed them all and was a non-factor in the late-game drama.
Neither coach could come up with a good explanation.
There was no need, however, as most of the postgame was about how the Billikens celebrated a milestone victory, their ninth straight and school-record fourth of the season over a Top 25 opponent, that has them in position for an unlikely conference title – even with their former coach, the late Rick Majerus, not around to see it.
Just kept playing, said Crews, who ought to be in the national coach of the year race. We don’t worry too much about the outcome. It’s what these kids have been putting into the program under a very difficult, adverse situation.
Also: Cliff Brunt’s Sports XChange/Reuters story on the game: Saint Louis 65, Butler 61.
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