All those missed free throws was only part of why SLU lost for the first time at home

For St. Louis University, the pattern is starting to look familiar. Once again on Wednesday, the Billikens played a game they could have won if they had done just a few things better, not even a whole lot, just a little, and once again, they didn’t.

“We're just not doing enough to get it done,” said center Robbie Avila. “Put a good first half together, but we were nowhere near as close as good in the second half. And that's what happens when you only play 20 minutes. So we got to continue to get better and keep grinding it out.”

SLU’s season so far continues to be a grind. SLU lost to Wofford, the pride of Spartanburg, South Carolina, 74-71, on Wednesday night at Chaifetz Arena. It was the first home loss for the Billikens but not the first time SLU had lost a game like this. The Billikens fell to 6-5 with two nonconference games left on its schedule before starting Atlantic 10 play on New Year’s Eve at Fordham. They have lost two in a row, three of their past four and their next game, at Grand Canyon on Sunday, is going to be another tough game, especially since SLU has yet to win a game away from Chaifetz.

“Obviously, everybody's frustrated, especially this last stretch that we had,” said Avila, who had 16 points, six rebounds and eight assists. “We came out and lost games that we thought that we should have had. Credit to the other teams for outplaying us. (Wofford) came in and beat us here, Illinois State beat us at their place. But, obviously, guys are frustrated with the results that are happening right now. But we know it's a long season ahead, especially the guys that are playing right now. We've all had our seasons, got a lot of games played between the first five, at least. And so we know in order to get better, you kind of got to move on and continue to work at it in practice. And so that's kind of the mindset that we're going to have. We got a real big one on Sunday against Grand Canyon. If we're not mentally focused for that one and moving forward on that one, it could be a bad outcome. So we're just getting ready for the next one.”

A solid first half turned into a looser second half which turned into another game that came down to the final seconds. All of it was made worse by a horrendous night of free throw shooting as SLU, which came into the game ranked 271st in the nation at the line, made just 20 of 35 attempts from the line. In one stretch of the second half, three Billikens combined to miss four consecutive free throws, and the player who missed two was Gibson Jimerson, the second-best free throw shooter in SLU history. Kalu Anya was 3 for 11 on free throws – coach Josh Schertz suspected by the end Wofford was fouling him rather than letting him make layups, which seemed a wise strategy – and while he’s in the top 10 in the nation in rebounds per game, he’s shooting 36.8 percent at the line.

For Schertz, the missed free throws were a distraction, though basic math says if SLU shoots 75 percent from the line instead of 57 percent, SLU wins the game. The root cause was something SLU has done all season, a drop off in its level of play. SLU held Wofford (5-7) to 28 points in the first half — and it might have been less than 20 if SLU had been better on the defensive boards — and allowed 46 in the second half.

“Everybody's gonna look at that game and go, ‘Well we lost because of our free throws,’ ” Schertz said. “I look at that game and I’m like, we lost because we couldn't sustain our defensive focus and intensity for the entire 40 minutes at the level that it needs to be sustained at. And so that's what I'll lose sleep over, not the free throws.”

SLU led by seven points at halftime and needed just 93 seconds of the second half to fall behind, as Wofford got nine points on its first three possessions. Wofford never led by more than six points in the game, but while SLU always stayed in the neighborhood, it never led again. And, once again, SLU ran into a team with a magic touch. Wofford scored 13 points on shots put up just ahead of the shot clock.

With just under 3 minutes to go, SLU was down three and sent Wofford to the line for two free throws. When the second was missed, SLU couldn’t get the rebound, Wofford got it back, which cost SLU 22 seconds and another point on another free throw.

“The discipline wasn't as good in the second half,” Schertz said. “The scheme wasn't as good in the second half. The try factor was there. But we got to make that loose ball play late on the free throw. It bounces out, we have it in our hands. They come in and take it out of our hands, and that gave them 20 more seconds. That's a huge play in that game. Winning teams make those plays. We didn't make them again. Not that we're not trying. We're trying, but winning teams, that's the difference. The margins are small in this deal when you're playing good teams and you're playing high level competitions. We're too beat up to have great margins anyway. It’s going to be the small details, we’ve got to grind stuff out. We got to make those kind of plays down the stretch of the game.”

But the missed free throws are also a factor of that. The points SLU is giving away is upping the pressure on everyone and making those margins even smaller. Imperfection at the line is requiring perfection elsewhere.

"It puts pressure on your defense when you when you miss free throws, when you miss any shots," Schertz said, "but your defense has to be strong enough to stand up to it, and we weren't tonight. We got a lot of work to do."

Still SLU hung in. Swope, who finished with 19 points, was fouled trying a 3 to tie the game with 5 seconds remaining. He made the first two to cut the lead to 72-71 and Wofford called time. Swope, who had made 6 of 7 free throws at that point, then went back to the line and left the third one short, and Wofford grabbed the rebound. SLU sent Wofford to the line with 3.1 seconds to go, knowing that whatever happened it would still be in the game when the free throws were done. Corey Tripp made both for Wofford, meaning SLU would need a 3 to tie. Kobe Johnson threw a long inbound pass to Avila, who was supposed to then dish the ball off to Swope or Jimerson for a 3 but Wofford’s defense surrounded Avila and kept him from passing the ball. Avila, of course, is a pretty good 3-point option himself and once he figured out he was the only choice he shot just ahead of the buzzer but the shot was blocked and the game ended.

Guard Kellen Thames, who has been plagued by severe cramping over the past three weeks, finally missed a game, but it was because of strained hip flexor suffered in the Chicago State game. While before he had sometimes been able to play 10 to 15 minutes before the cramps got to him, this time he was gone from the start and it sounds as if Thames may be given another game off to rest up his hip and see if it helps with the cramps.