A few days prior to heading to New York for St. Louis University’s Atlantic 10 Conference opener, guard Gibson Jimerson was talking about how Rose Hill Gym, the tiny home of Fordham basketball, was one of his favorites in the A-10. Not because he had done well there but because of the building’s history — it turns 100 on Jan. 16 and is the oldest in use in Division I basketball — its look and the environment its size creates.
As if he needed another reason to like Rose Hill, Jimerson got one on Tuesday afternoon when he scored a career-high 33 points as SLU won its first road game of the season and got the conference season off to a good start with an 88-63 win over the Rams. At two critical points in the game, when SLU jumped out to a quick 14-6 lead and when SLU went on a 10-0 run after Fordham cut SLU’s 13-point lead to six, Jimerson had 20 of those 24 points.
“That was a fun game,” Jimerson said. “Any time you can go on the road in conference play, especially the first one, and win like that is awesome. And obviously I had it going early and just kind of continued throughout the game. So it was fun.”
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“He’s gone off like that a couple of times already this year, just take over,” said forward Kalu Anya, who had 10 rebounds. “He puts a lot of work into his game, so whenever he’s hot like that, we just have to get him the ball.”
It was a big win for SLU (8-6), not just because it was the team’s first away from Chaifetz Arena after three road and two neutralisite losses, but because SLU played its best on both sides of the ball. SLU shot 60.3% from the field while holding Fordham (8-6, 0-1) to 39.3% shooting. SLU held Jackie Johnson III, the A-10’s leading scorer at 18.5 points per game, to 14 and to just one 3-point attempt.
“I think our defense was the best it’s been,” coach Josh Schertz said. “I thought we were flying around. Made it hard on them to get looks. I thought we really active, we got 10 steals. We blocked five shots. We were disruptive with discipline. I didn’t think we were gambling and running through stuff, and that’s what we want to be. I thought our guys covered for each other. I thought we had collisions, I thought our defense really helped our offense, and against them, you have to, because Fordham, they thrive on their pressure, but to get to their pressure, they have to score.”
“You cut my points in half, or a third of that,” Jimerson said, “and I think we still win that game comfortably. So for us, it starts on that end of the court. Shots go in, they don’t, Coach Schertz talks about the shooting variance. But we got to hang our hat on the defensive end, be that solid, tough defensive team, scrap, claw. Some nights we make a lot of shots, we’ll win like we did today. We don’t, we win a close one. I think obviously this is a great, great building block for that to kind of set the foundation of our defense going into conference play.”
There were other encouraging signs for SLU. Isaiah Swope returned to the lineup after sitting out the William Woods game with a sore knee. Swope played 37 minutes and had 15 points with four assists and four rebounds. Guard Kellen Thames was also back after missing three games with a hip flexor strain, and while he saw just five minutes in each half, it’s a first step. AJ Casey, who had been out with an ankle injury before getting a few minutes against William Woods, was unavailable with a back injury suffered in practice on Monday.
The win was also the continuation of a trend which has been obscured by some recent results. SLU’s physical effort was lacking against Illinois State, and it improved against both Wofford and Grand Canyon, but SLU lost both of those games.
“I think we’re starting to see kind of that gel and kind of forming as a team, especially competing on the defensive end,” Jimerson said. “I think that’s kind of been our biggest thing this year, is just competing together on that end of the floor. Specifically it requires a lot of communication and togetherness. And tonight was an elite defensive effort, I think, on our end. They had the league’s leading scorer, and we did a great job on him, Kobe (Johnson) did a great job, Swope, all those guys. It was really a team defensive effort. Kind of took them out of what they were looking to do and frustrated them. I think that was a really good together, defensive effort that we can build on going forward.”
Johnson had only two points for SLU, but his defense drew praise from Schertz.
“I thought Kobe Johnson added as much value to winning this game as Gibson did,” said Schertz, “because what he did on the defensive end on (Jackie) Johnson and holding him to one 3-point attempt and making it hard. ... The work he did and fighting screens and getting through ball screens, that was huge for us.”
Jimerson had 26 points in the first half, almost outscoring Fordham by himself as SLU led at the break 42-29. It’s not the first time this season Jimerson has gotten off to a big start. He scored 24 in the first half against UMass Lowell, only to score none in the second half. This time he had seven in the second half, but after taking 13 shots in the first half, he took just two in the second.
“I think it’s give-and-take there,” said Jimerson, who set the SLU record for games played with 146 on Tuesday. “You want to continue to be aggressive, but at the same time, we had a good lead, and we wanted to extend it. So kind of just taking what they were giving us. We got a lot of wide open layups and 3s, and I was able to obviously capitalize in the first half. Second half I think they did a little better job, they lost me again a few times. So just moving around, being aggressive, but also, that opens up stuff for my teammates, which helps the team.”
SLU 88, Fordham 63
SLU
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A F Pt
Anya 30 3-7 1-3 2-10 2 2 7
Avila 34 7-12 3-3 1-5 4 2 19
Jimerson 36 11-15 6-8 1-8 1 0 33
K.Johnson 31 1-2 0-0 0-3 3 3 2
Swope 37 7-12 0-0 1-4 4 2 15
Pikaar 11 3-3 0-0 0-0 0 2 6
Thames 10 2-6 0-0 1-1 1 2 4
Warlick 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Brockhoff 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2
Totals 200 35-58 10-14 6-31 15 13 88
Percentages: FG .603, FT .714.
3-Point Goals: 8-21, .381 (Jimerson 5-7, Avila 2-5, Swope 1-5, Anya 0-1, K.Johnson 0-1, Thames 0-2).
Team Rebounds: 6. Team Turnovers: 1.
Blocked Shots: 5 (Pikaar 2, Anya, Avila, Jimerson).
Turnovers: 11 (Jimerson 3, Anya 2, Avila 2, K.Johnson, Pikaar, Swope, Thames).
Steals: 10 (K.Johnson 4, Anya 2, Jimerson, Pikaar, Swope, Warlick).
FORDHAM
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A F Pt
Dean 27 2-5 2-2 0-4 0 0 8
Tsimbila 23 3-6 3-4 4-9 0 2 9
J.Johnson 28 5-10 4-6 0-4 2 1 14
Medor 25 1-6 0-0 0-0 4 2 2
Tripp 28 5-14 1-2 1-1 3 3 12
Rivera 25 4-10 0-0 2-4 1 2 8
Riley 21 2-5 0-0 0-3 2 2 5
Zona 18 1-4 0-0 1-2 0 1 2
Pettis 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Totals 200 24-61 10-14 8-27 12 13 63
Percentages: FG .393, FT .714.
3-Point Goals: 5-18, .278 (Dean 2-4, Pettis 1-1, Riley 1-3, Tripp 1-4, J.Johnson 0-1, Medor 0-1, Rivera 0-1, Zona 0-3).
Team Rebounds: 0. Team Turnovers: None.
Blocked Shots: 3 (J.Johnson, Tripp, Zona).
Turnovers: 10 (J.Johnson 3, Tripp 3, Rivera 2, Medor, Pettis).
Steals: 8 (Medor 3, J.Johnson 2, Tripp 2, Rivera).
Saint Louis 42 46 — 88
Fordham 29 34 — 63
