It was another day and another win for Saint Louis at the Barclays Center, as the Dwayne Evans and the Billikens rolled over the Butler Bulldogs 67-56 in a matchup of two of the most well known teams in the Atlantic 10 conference. The win advances Saint Louis to the finals on Sunday where they will take on VCU, who defeated Massachusetts.
Here are a few thoughts from Saturday’s game:
- All season long the Billikens have lacked a big time scorer, and the junior forward Dwayne Evans has become that for Saint Louis. Evans poured in 24 points on 7-10 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds. Both were game highs. Evans had 25 points the day before against Charlotte and is averaging over 20.1 points per game over the last seven contests. During that stretch he’s also had four of his eight double-digit rebounding performances on the season.
- Saint Louis proved today that they do perfectly well running efficient half-court sets as opposed to a tempo offense. Butler managed to outrebound the Billikens 38-29, and also chucked up nine more shots (54-45), but still found itself battling from behind all afternoon.
- To make up for the lack of rebounding and shots taken, Saint Louis needed to have it’s full defensive repertoire on display, and it was on Saturday. The Billikens forced 20 turnovers, which included a jaw-dropping 14 steals.
- Butler actually jumped out to a somewhat comfortable 24-17 lead with 5:43 remaining in the first half. However, the Bulldogs quickly went cold, being unable to make a field goal before intermission, going 0-8 from the field during that time. After getting the two point lead in the waning seconds of the first half on a Rob Loe layup, the Bulldogs never once regained control of the game.
- Butler closes out the season 26-8, having gone 0-3 vs. Saint Louis, and 0-1 against VCU, 1-1 against La Salle, which is a combined 1-5 against the top three teams in the conference. Although Butler had some spectacular non-conference wins against the likes of Indiana, Marquette, North Carolina, and Gonzaga, it is the holes in the A-10 schedule that will prevent the Bulldogs from having a possibly a two seed come selection Sunday. They could go anywhere from a five to a seven seed. Though, for Brad Stevens in the past, seeding has been a moot point as the Bulldogs have made the Final Four as both an 11 seed and an eight seed.
In the second game of the day, VCU ended any hopes of a shocking UMass title run, as the Minutemen ran out of time in a 71-62 defeat to the Rams. The UMass loss will likely send them packing back to the NIT, as the A-10’s hope of getting six teams to the dance came to an end Saturday afternoon.
- VCU runs a very quick offense. This is evidenced by the fact that despite being out-rebounded 46-33, the Rams still found a way to jack up 70 shots compared to just 53 for UMass. A lot of that had to do with the 23 UMass turnovers compared to just seven on the day for VCU.
- Though the Rams shot just 8-21 from long range, six of those makes came from the hands of Troy Daniels, who finished with 20 to lead the team. That’s a big stop up from yesterday for the teams leading three point shooter, he went just 4-13 in the win over St. Josephs.
- The 62 points allowed was the lowest output for any team against VCU in two weeks. The Rams have struggled with allowing points; case in point was the win over St. Joseph’s the day before in which the Rams gave up 79. UMass typically averages just under 74 points per game, which is 38th in the nation.
- Normally the Rams leading scorer, Treveon Graham was a paltry 1-12 from the field, including 0-5 from behind the arc. He finished with three points and five rebounds.
- The Minutemen led the game 23-15 with 6:39 remaining in the first half. The Rams then went on an 11-0 run sparked by three consecutive triples from Daniels.
- The win solidifies VCU’s standing as the second best team in the conference. Ranked 25 in the AP poll, a win tomorrow and the Rams could see their stock rise and maybe get a four or five seed tomorrow night.
Sam Blum covers A-10 basketball for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow him on twitter @DaBlumsta
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