The BG men’s basketball team was stifled offensively to the tune of 18 turnovers against the Saint Louis Billikens.
The Falcons could not overcome their 18 turnovers, a season-high, which led to 18 Billikens points as they defeated the Falcons 74-47 on Saturday night at the Chaifetz Arena in Saint Louis, Mo.
“St. Louis is a good team and against good teams you have to play well,” head coach Louis Orr said.
BG falls to 1-3 overall on the season and 0-2 so far in the Cancun Challenge, while Saint Louis remains unbeaten at 5-0. The loss snaps BG’s winning streak against the Billikens at four games.
Sophomore forward Spencer Parker scored 13 points. Richaun Holmes and Anthony Henderson each scored nine points on what was a tough shooting game for the Falcons as they shot 18-54 on the night. Center Cameron Black hauled in eight rebounds, while Henderson and JD Tisdale each had multiple steals during the game.
The Billikens had three players in double figures in Dwayne Evans with 14 points, as Tanner Lancona and Mike McCall Jr. finished with 12 and 11 points each.
BG was 0-of-6 shooting to start the game but overcame that start, to cut into an 11-3 Billikens’ lead with a 6-2 run, capped off by a junior guard Jehvon Clarke layup to put the visitors down just four points at 13-9 with 9:16 to play in the opening half.
“The first half of basketball for us was the best defensive half of the year,” Orr said. “That was the first half against a Division I team when we held a team under 50 percent shooting.”
After cutting the Saint Louis lead to three at 22-19, the Billikens answered with a three-pointer from Austin McBroom to jump-start a 7-0 run to finish the half out and take a 29-19 lead into the break.
BG started the second half with a follow up tip-in by Holmes to cut the Billikens lead to single digits at 29-21. Yet the Billikens answered with an 8-0 run to pull out to a 16 point lead at 37-21 with 16:44 to go.
Less than 30 seconds later, back-to-back layups by Clarke and Henderson in a 10 second stretch put the visitors down just 12 at 37-25.
That would be as close as the Falcons would get as the Billikens, who shot 60 percent (18-of-30) from the floor overall in the second half, continued to pull towards the end of the second half.
BG (1-3) will return to action on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 26, as the Falcons will take on the Presbyterian College Blue Hose at 12:30 p.m. EST in the first game of the Mayan Division of the 2013 Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico.
“It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish,” Orr said. “This is the start of the story, this is the first chapter and it’s not the last.”
