It was a battle of last year’s champions: Rhode Island, who shared the regular season title with UMass and Saint Louis the post season tournament titlists. Coming back from an early deficit Saint Louis posted an impressive 76-73 over Rhode Island. Sunday’s game at the Ryan Center saw the Billikens improve to 10-15 (5-7) while the host Rams are now 15-11 (7-6).
Possessions: 72- an uptempo pace. A little faster than the Rhode Island average of 68 possessions per game and right in Saint Louis’ 75 possessions per outing neighborhood.
Offensive efficiency: SLU 106, URI 101
Four Factors:
eFG Pct.: URI 64, SLU 55
FT Rate: SLU 23, URI 19
OREB Pct.: URI 41, SLU 32
TO Rate: SLU 21, URI 31
Leading Scorers: SLU: Peyton Kennedy 31 points. Kyla McMakin 17.
URI: Maye Toure 16 points, Tenin Magassa 14.
Among the Four Factors Tammi Reiss’ Rams had a strong showing in two categories (eFG and OREB Pct.) , while finishing almost even in another (FT Rate) . The game changer was the turnovers. Rhode Island’s season norm in that TO Rate category is 18%. Sunday they had a season high 25 miscues leading to 24 Billiken points. That proved to be the difference in a one possession contest.
Battling back the entire afternoon, Saint Louis took their first lead with 98 seconds remaining. Rebecca Tillett’s Billikens held the hosts scoreless the last four minutes of the game.
For Peyton Kennerdy, the 31 points were a career-high. The senior forward was a perfect 7 of 7 from the charity stripe and 4 of 8 beyond the arc.
Rhode Island had five players in double figures. The 73 points were the most the Rams scored this season in a loss.
Saint Louis plates three of the next four at home. The Billikens host Loyola Chicago on Wednesday. Rhode Island visits UMass on Wednesday.
