Bills lose heartbreaker in D.C.

The Billikids dropped a heartbreaking 67-62 overtime loss to George Washington last night in the nation's capital. With nine minutes left in the game, the Bills had a 13 point lead and appeared poised to run their Atlantic 10 Conference record to 4-1 with their second road win of the league season. The lead was still eight points with four minutes left in regulation. Then it all fell apart from there. The kids from George Washington turned up the pressure on both ends of the court and we wilted down the stretch and into overtime.

We built the big advantage in the second half with some great ball movement and excellent 3-point shooting, particularly by freshman Cody Ellis, who finished with 20 points on six 3-pointers. We looked like a machine on offense while our half-court defense was excellent as well. In the last several minutes of regulation, GW went to an aggressive man-to-man defense and our offense got stagnant and tentative. Meanwhile, GW started to attack the basket on the dribble-drive. It worked as they shot 59 percent in the second half after shooting less than 30 percent in the first half. Their overall team athleticism came to the forefront as the game wore on. In the overtime period, we appeared to be fatigued as GW coach Karl Hobbs played 12 players and kept the pressure on with a variety of trapping defenses. It took its toll as they appeared fresher and more energetic down the stretch as we appeared to lose our legs and our poise in process. As the saying goes, with tired bodies come tired minds. We had three costly turnovers and failed to block out on a missed free throw in the OT. It was a tough night to endure. In my 19 years of broadcasting SLU basketball, this was one of the toughest losses for me. It was the beginning of a tough stretch on league games where we played four out of five on the road. Getting the first road win in this stretch would have been huge, but we let it slip through our fingers. Unfortunately, it goes with the process of being a young team trying to develop. You are going to have a few moments like these and they are indeed painful. On the road, you have to be that much more mentally tough and be able to make some tough shots down the stretch and that didn't happen on Wednesday night. I was still pleased with the way we built that lead in the first place. Despite another bad start (didn't get our first field goal for nearly eight minutes), we started to move the ball and get wide open looks against their traps. At one point, we shot 10 of 20 from 3-point distance for 50 percent. So, that part was good. What we have to do is to start better. Our slow start offensively gave us bad memories about our 20-point debacle in D.C. two years ago. We must also shoot free throws. We were only five for 10 last night, so the charity stripe contines to be a sore spot. Despite the heartbreak, we have to put it behind us pretty quickly because we have a tough game at Richmond on Saturday. The team left for Richmond last night right after the game. They will watch the film of the game today in what should be a great teaching moment for Coach Majerus and his staff. They will also get in a practice as well later today. Rammer and I are staying in D.C. an extra day to take in some of the city and see a few sights. We will then take the train to Richmond on Friday afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing how our Billikids respond to the challenge. They are a pretty resilient bunch, so I think they will go out and compete well against a Richmond team that would like a little revenge on us after losing at the Chaifetz a few weeks ago. What we have showed early is that we will compete on the road, which is a big improvement on the way things have been in the past. All three of our A-10 road games have gone into overtime, with the Duquesne game going into double OT. That's a sign of progress. Now, we have to find a few ways to close games and that takes mental toughness and maturity. So, the kids will continue to learn from these experiences because there are going to be a lot more close games like this, at home and on the road. Stay tuned, it should be interesting.