St. Louis University is 16-12 this season, but don’t go thinking that having a record right around .500 means its games are anything close to routine.
SLU stayed alive in its bid to get a top-four finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference and an automatic spot in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament by using a dramatic 19-5 run over the final 6:31 of the game, capped by a basket by Robbie Avila with 4.6 seconds left, as it erased a 13-point deficit to pull out a 57-56 win over Davidson on Tuesday in Davidson, North Carolina.
A loss would have been nearly fatal in the team’s last-ditch bid for a double bye in the conference tournament and now, for at least a day, SLU is alone in fourth place, though that will likely change when Dayton and St. Joseph’s, the teams it was tied with, play games Wednesday.
“I’m aging in dog years this season,†SLU coach Josh Schertz said. “It’s taken seven years off my life this season. It’s this cross section of being maddening because of the things we do and the way we play sometimes, and just the mistakes that we make, and then it’s inspiring because they just keep coming and competing and they’re relentless in how they compete.â€
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This time, it was a basket by Avila with 4.6 seconds left that put SLU ahead, and then SLU’s defense totally bungled Davidson’s last possession and let Bobby Durkin, a 38% 3-point shooter, have an open look at the basket just ahead of the buzzer, but his shot was short.
“I don’t think it could have gotten any more open for him,†Avila said. “We’re lucky that he missed that one for sure.â€
“We couldn’t have guarded the last play any worse than we did,†Schertz said. “There’s like seven things to do in that play. We did zero of them correctly.â€
Rallying from 13 points down to win makes this the biggest comeback of the season for SLU, but there have been other down-to-the-wire comebacks reflective of just how SLU’s season has gone:
- SLU was down seven with 4:43 to play at Richmond and took the lead with 47 seconds left.
- SLU was down five with 1:17 left at UMass and Isaiah Swope put them ahead with nine seconds left.
- Swope also hit a 3-pointer with one second left to send SLU’s game with then A-10-leading George Mason to overtime, where the Billikens lost.
- Swope had a 3 that would have tied the game with George Washington after the Billikens had been down 16 but he missed with 11 seconds to play.
This time, Swope, whose offense kept SLU alive in the first half and who finished with 23 points, hit a 3 with 44 seconds left to put SLU within a point at 56-55.
“I think we’ve got a bunch of guys who are just going to continue to fight,†said Avila, who finished with 19 points after scoring just two in the first half. “I love this team, and I love the way we fight and we don’t give up.â€
If luck was on SLU’s side on that final shot by Davidson, SLU did a lot of things right to get in that position. After Schettz called time to try to stop an 18-4 run for Davidson, that put it back up by 13 — “He got on us a little bit,†Avila said — SLU scored on eight of its last nine possessions while getting stops on seven of Davidson’s last nine possessions.
Gibson Jimerson, who had made one of 10 3-point tries by that point in the game, hit one to get SLU back within four, and after SLU turned the ball over with a chance to make it a one-possession game and fell back behind by seven, Avila hit his first 3 of the game (after missing four) with 1:33 left to make it a four-point game again.
Swope hit a 3 to make it 56-55, and SLU got the ball back after a Davidson miss with 25 seconds remaining. After a timeout with 12.6 seconds left, Jimerson got the ball to Avila, who got low, spun and laid it in with 4.6 seconds left.
“We’ve been here before,†Swope said. “He’s been here before. We played in a lot of big games together, and I’ve seen him do it countless times, whether in practice or in a game setting. So if he has the ball, I said, I got all the confidence in the world that he’ll make a play, either to score or even make the play to one of our teammates, if we’re open.â€
“I don’t think I’ve actually had a legitimate game winner before,†Avila said, “like a game winner within the final seconds. I know I’ve hit some last, but it was like, under a minute 3-pointers that put us ahead, or 3-pointers that tied the game. But as far as the final seconds, usually Swope does that.â€
Avila made just 1 of 5 shots in the first half and was 0 for 2 on 3-pointers. None of that slowed him in the second half.
“Sometimes my 3s were pretty much wide open. they just weren’t falling,†he said, “and so it’s always frustrating. But I think I have the calm endurance to be able to push through it and continue to play through the next play. I’ve worked my behind off, it’s why I take so many shots, and the shots that I take, and so I have all the confidence in the world, and I’m able to just kind of push through when I’m starting slow and really get going there at the end.â€
SLU has three games to go, and its game Saturday against Loyola Chicago will be telling as to whether the team can stay in the fight for fourth.
