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But to even get this far was, to SLU coach Josh Schertz, was maybe the biggest comeback of all.

“Going into the middle of December, I didn’t think there was a chance we would win five games in this league,� Schertz said Friday after SLU’s (probably) season-ending 72-64 loss to Loyola Chicago. “Leaving Illinois State (on Dec. 15), I just didn’t think we were connected. Didn’t think we were very tough. We were terrible defensively. Didn’t think we were very resilient. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a team improve more from the middle of the season to the end than this group. We fought to the final horn. Sometimes it went our way, sometimes it didn’t.

“But from the middle of December on, I never had to worry about how much these guys care, how hard they were going to play, how resilient, how tough they were going to be. Even when we’re down 12 in the second half, I had zero doubt we were going to find a way back in and win the game. And we gave ourselves a chance.�

SLU cut its deficit once to two points and another time to three, but it couldn’t get the stops on defense to get into the lead and that cost them. It could be the end of the season for the Billikens (19-14), who might not get invited to one of the lesser postseason tournaments. Schertz said the team would talk about it if an invitation came. SLU went into the game with a NET ranking of 99, which likely will fall after the loss, which puts it right around the cutoff for teams to get bids.

“If there was postseason play that they wanted to go do, certainly we would do it,� Schertz said. “But I know this is a pretty beat-up group that has kind of put everything they have and they're trying to finish this thing the right way. So we'll see what the next couple of days hold.�

It was a big game for Isaiah Swope, who matched his career high with 30 points and essentially kept SLU in the game by himself, but not for the other members of SLU’s high-scoring trio. Gibson Jimerson, in what, like Swope, might have been his last college game, had a season-low four points, going 0 for five on 3-point shots. Robbie Avila had 12 points, but didn’t make his first field goal until midway through the second half and missed the front end of two one-and-ones, one when SLU was down six and another down five. He later missed a short shot that would have cut Loyola’s lead to four with about two minutes remaining.

“I think I learned a lot about my weaknesses this year,� Avila said, “stuff that I struggled in. Competition kind of shows that for you, especially when it’s good competition. I’m going to take what I learned this year, try to rehab my body, make sure my body’s taken care of and I’m strengthened so I’m not getting injuries like that again and just try to get better before we start again in the summer.�

And, he said, he will be back.

“One hundred percent,� he said. “I’ll be back.�

The first season of the Schertz Era at SLU had lots of potential but ran afoul of losses that didn’t happen on the court. Josiah Dotzler, Kellen Thames and AJ Casey all suffered season-ending injuries and a fourth player, Larry Hughes II, left the program in early December. SLU finished the season with nine scholarship players and played most games with just seven of them. Swope, who had offseason knee injury, was fighting discomfort there for much of the season and seldom practiced.

“I think we looked like two totally different teams from the first half of the season to the second, and our season overall had its challenges in its own ways,� said Swope, who like Avila came over from Indiana State with Schertz. “I feel like we did a good job of keeping it behind us and just steadily moving forward. Nobody likes to lose, and we lost, but it is a credit to us, in a sense, for figuring out a way out of nothing. It’s my last year, and this has been my hardest year, but also, in a sense, my most fun year. I do like to take a challenge head on, and it has been hard overall, not just for me but for our team. … It’s a tough mix, but we figured out a way to be able to compete with the top teams in the conference. Big credit to us in the sense of figuring it out a little bit.�

Though Loyola had only five points off 10 offensive rebounds, they were daggers for SLU. With the Billikens down 63-60 with 3:30 to play, Des Watson missed a shot for Loyola, but SLU couldn’t get the rebound, and instead of having a chance to take the lead, fell behind six when Sheldon Edwards Jr. made a 3-pointer. SLU was still down six with 1:32 to play when Kymamy Houinsou missed the front end of a one-and-one but Watson got the rebound and while Loyola didn’t score on that possession, it allowed the Ramblers to take 16 seconds off the clock. And then when SLU got the ball back, Dylan Warlick drove into the key, got stopped, and eventually was called for traveling, giving the ball back to Loyola with 59 seconds to play. Loyola made five of its next six free throws to stop any comeback hopes.

“I think there’s some plays that I, personally, should have finished,� Avila said. “I didn’t. I had easy layups that I usually make and I was missing. Defensively, we didn’t match their physicality. They really came out with the physicality and we kind of took a step backwards.�

“I would just say the rebounding,� Swope said. “I think the first two games we played them, we outrebounded them. Then obviously (this time), we didn't. As it gets closer to the last four minutes of the game, rebounds are crucial. I think one of the plays they got, Edwards hit a three, and it was just the small stuff that happened throughout the flow of the game, and it kind of crept into the last four minutes.

“We knew what we needed to do to win, and we didn't.�