Game Thread: St. Louis @ Richmond (Saturday (2/9/13)

[El Shaqtus]

This is a brawl.

Not for the faint of heart...but we expected the defenses to step up.

[SDW]

So far, SLU with a ton of turnovers, Richmond forcing way too many contested shots where guys look to go one-on-one and lots of fouls. SLU with a bunch of moving screens, which actually all seemed legit. Some suspect blocking fouls on both teams but nothing horribly egregious.

Mitchell with a long 3 with 30 seconds left in the half to give SLU the 4 point lead. Spiders missed a wide-open Nelson-Ododa under the hoop with 5 seconds left to pass to Anthony who got rejected by Manning.

Jett using physicality against UR on drives, Spiders should step off him a step and dare him to shoot jumpers.

I'd wager all but the last 3 by Mitchell of SLU's points have come in/around the lane or at the line.

Since I don't expect SLU to turn it over so much in the 2nd half, Spiders will have to shoot better to win, that's all there is. Can't have 2 points from Brothers and 2 from Anthony at home and expect to get it done.

[bprichard]

Very interesting call by Mooney. Orders his guy to foul Remekun with over three left. Pays off when he misses the front end. Only works once though, as Remekun fouls out on the next possession.

[El Shaqtus]

Originally Posted by bprichard

Very interesting call by Mooney. Orders his guy to foul Remekun with over three left. Pays off when he misses the front end. Only works once though, as Remekun fouls out on the next possession.

I think Coach Crews takes the trade there. One less bad FT shooter out there.

[Bills71]

Originally Posted by SpiderInTheMixingBowl

Maybe you'll now remember what a Billiken is! ;-)

[AlumniFan]

Originally Posted by Bills71

Maybe you'll now remember what a Billiken is! ;-)

+1

[bprichard]

Originally Posted by El Shaqtus

I think Coach Crews takes the trade there. One less bad FT shooter out there.

Yeah, I think he was going to jerk him at the soonest opportunity anyway. It was a good strategy by Mooney, but the Billikens weather a late storm for a well earned win.

[Moliva]

Congrats to the Bills. Very tough ballclub. We played one of our worst games of the year and SLU had a lot to do with it.

Brutal game to watch at times. Good luck the rest of the way.

[El Shaqtus]

Originally Posted by Moliva

Congrats to the Bills. Very tough ballclub. We played one of our worst games of the year and SLU had a lot to do with it.

Brutal game to watch at times. Good luck the rest of the way.

You guys too.

Getting Williams back up to speed makes the Spiders even tougher. Their D is real.

[SDW]

SLU was a machine. Not a great one tonight, but one that played to their strengths and believed in them and it wore down UR midway through the 2nd half.

Spiders couldn't get many open looks and missed when they did. Doesn't usually happen at home. Still, the game was there at about 6 points at about the 13 minute mark and UR made a few mistakes and didn't make any plays and the Bills exploited them, even as they were turning it over so much themselves. That's what UR didn't do - take advantage of those mistakes by SLU and turn them into points.

I didn't think SLU's shooting was great, which can be a huge weak point. UR should have stepped back from Jett all night, but played up on him and he penetrated and found bigs for layups many times.

The Cody Ellis undercut/flop at 45-40 and under 3 minutes left bugged me. Anthony has to make that floater, but I hate that a 6'8" guy steps under a 5'8" guy and flops like that. Gotta let a player land. I wouldn't have called a foul on it, just didn't like the play, especially b/c Ellis flopped at least 2 other times and got both of those calls. Refs didn't make an impact on the game since the team that was the aggressor got the calls, respectively, which is how is always is.

Good game, Bills, great defense. Spiders should have upped the tempo at home.

[El Shaqtus]

Richmond got some looks, they just didn't go down.

23% from the floor is a killer.

[SDW]

Of those looks, how many were hand-in-face drives, double-clutch attempts, or deep threes? I would guess, offhand, at 77%.

Sparrow had the best looks all night - except for that one Anthony wide-open 3 - and he couldn't catch fire after his first make in the 2nd half. Brothers never got truly open all night, Anthony forced a couple longer ones and didn't make runners, and none of the wings except Terry Allen seemed to have success driving and finishing. Even Lindsay didn't really finish much, most of his points were FTs and could have really helped by finishing those drives and making them 3 point opportunities.

Spiders lack a true slasher from either the 2 or 3 spots on the wing, and that's a real killer when jumpers aren't going down.

[buckswope]

A road win is a road win, but damn that was a painful game to watch.

[AlumniFan]

Originally Posted by SDW

Of those looks, how many were hand-in-face drives, double-clutch attempts, or deep threes? I would guess, offhand, at 77%.

Sparrow had the best looks all night - except for that one Anthony wide-open 3 - and he couldn't catch fire after his first make in the 2nd half. Brothers never got truly open all night, Anthony forced a couple longer ones and didn't make runners, and none of the wings except Terry Allen seemed to have success driving and finishing. Even Lindsay didn't really finish much, most of his points were FTs and could have really helped by finishing those drives and making them 3 point opportunities.

Spiders lack a true slasher from either the 2 or 3 spots on the wing, and that's a real killer when jumpers aren't going down.

I just hope we don't see you guys in the A10 tournament. If your shots fall, it will not be pretty for the opponent.

[ur2k]

Rough game to watch. We couldn't hit a freakin shot all night.