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In a game that St. Louis University had every reason to lose, it didn’t.

SLU committed 15 turnovers — “Some of the plays are mind-numbing,� SLU coach Josh Schertz said — which Massachusetts converted into 20 points; UMass got 20 offensive rebounds, which became 19 points; and Robbie Avila, SLU’s best player (though definitely not in SLU’s past three games), wasn’t around, having fouled out with 13:17 to play in the game.

Despite all that, SLU pulled out a 73-71 win over UMass at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. UMass was up by five and had the ball with 49.4 seconds to play only to see SLU score seven points in the final 37 seconds for the win.

“You can’t be down about winning,� said Swope, whose 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds to play gave SLU the win.

You can’t be down but you can be surprised, and that’s what it was like for SLU after this one. SLU got breaks at pretty much every turn in the final minute, so while the team showed some resilience, it also showed some good fortune. SLU (14-9, 7-3) stayed in third in the Atlantic 10, while UMass, seconds away from pulling even with SLU, is 10-13, 5-5.

“We didn’t win the way that we wanted to win,� said Swope, who led SLU with 20 points, “but we won at the end of the day.�

“Obviously I didn’t feel like we deserved to win that game,� Schertz said. “We got outplayed for most of 40 minutes. ... We certainly got a little bit fortunate there down the stretch with some free throws and turnovers.�

An unlikely win needed an unlikely hero, and while Swope scored five of those final seven points, they wouldn’t have happened without freshman guard Amari McCottry, who was in the game only because Avila had fouled out. It was Avila’s second straight game in single digits in scoring, as he finished this one with six points, four rebounds, four assists and three turnovers in 23 minutes of court time.

McCottry hasn’t been playing much lately, averaging about six minutes per game in Atlantic 10 play, but Schertz didn’t have many options. In just 18 minutes, McCottry outdid Avila in most categories, with seven points, six rebounds (all after Avila had fouled out), three assists and three steals.

“Honestly, just doing whatever I can do to help my team win,� McCottry said. “That’s the thing. Me and Coach Schertz have been talking about me trying to impact the game, about winning, rebounding, defense or just doing anything to help us win.�

Anything? How about everything. In just the final minute, he made a steal with 42 seconds left that led to a Swope layup that cut the UMass lead to three. After UMass’ Jaylen Curry missed the front end of a one-and-one with 37.4 seconds to play, McCottry got the rebound and started the play that led to a Kalu Anya layup with 22 seconds left that made it a one-point game.

McCottry then had another steal after UMass inbounded the ball, which he got to Swope, who missed a 3-point shot with 14 seconds to play. A scramble on the floor ensued for the rebound, which ended with McCottry coming up with the ball. From the ground, he passed to Swope, who this time sank the 3 to put SLU up by two with 9.3 seconds to go.

UMass got off a decent shot to tie the game ahead of the buzzer, but it was blocked out of bounds by Anya.

“We don’t have a chance to win without him,� Swope said. “We need everybody to win.�

“When Amari is ready to play,� Schertz said, “his talent is at a really high level. And out of the freshmen on the bench, he’s the one that moves his feet the best. He’s by far the best defender when he’s locked into defending, and he’s the best rebounder when he’s locked into rebounding. Now, I got to get him doing those things more consistently. ... In the moments of truth, he was fantastic. I thought this was his best game of the season, for sure.�

Though it wasn’t a perfect game. With SLU down by three and having the ball, McCottry tried to throw a home run pass to Anya and overthrew him, costing SLU a chance to tie the game.

“Made my freshman mistake trying to outlet the ball to Kalu and turned it over,� McCottry said. “I was kind of down on myself, but Swope, the whole team, just stayed with me. Told me to stay confident, we’re going to win this game. I just stuck to it.�

“I just said to him, forget about it,� Swope said. “I made a million mistakes in that game — all you can do is just go to the next play. It’s over with.�

It only seemed like there were a million mistakes in the game, and if not for UMass missing nine of its last 10 field goal tries and three of six free throws over the final 4:24 of the game, they would have been the causes of a loss for SLU: Turnovers and opponent’s offensive rebounds would have been the cause of the defeat. UMass took 73 shots in the game, 16 more than SLU, which is why it almost won while shooting 37% to SLU’s 49%.

“I told the guys in the locker room,� Schertz said, “don’t let the final nine seconds minimize what happened in the first 39 minutes and 51 seconds. If Swope misses that 3 and we lose 71-70, the reasons we would have lost are still there. We’ve got to be so much cleaner with the ball. The turnovers are maddening. I’ve not been able to get them under control. That’s coaching. ... We try to hit home runs. We play every possession like we’re up 40. We want to play fast, we want to play loose but we want to play disciplined. We’re missing the last part of that, and I got to do a better job. That’s bad coaching.�

“A lot of them are just silly mistakes,� said Swope, who committed five of the turnovers, “just not making a simple play. It starts with me, that we got to cut that down. We know we’ll turn the ball over a little bit with our playing style, but at the same time, some of them are just bonehead mistakes. I threw a behind-the-back pass and it went back court. I could be more simple, and it’s an easy shot for our teammates.�