Earl Austin Jr: Billikids do it again: Rally to defeat Rhode Island

Billikids do it again: Rally to defeat Rhode Island
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Earl  Austin on 19/02/2010 14:04:00
 
FOR MUCH OF THE FIRST HALF, THE TEAM LOOKS HOPELESSLY OVERMATCHED AS THE
OPPOSING TEAM (LASALLE, ST. JOSEPH’S, DAYTON, RHODE ISLAND), RUNS OUT TO A
DOUBLE-DIGIT LEAD AND LOOKS UNSTOPPABLE IN THE PROCESS. LIKE ROCKY BALBOA, OUR
KIDS ARE TAKING SOME BIG SHOTS AND BEING KNOCKED DOWN NUMEROUS TIMES.
However, this resilient bunch of youngsters manages to get up and brush
themselves off and get back into the fight every time. Like the Italian
Stallion, the kids just keep punching and fighting back until they break through
with a big play or two down the stretch to earn a hard-fought victory. It’s
amazing to watch. The more you beat them down and try to count them out, the
harder they come back and fight.
Such was the case on Wednesday night in the first half when Rhody struck like
lightning in the first half with a 11-0 run to turn a 19-18 lead into a 30-18
bulge. It happened so quick that I couldn’t catch my breath.
Freshman guard Akeem Richmond hit us with three consecutive long-distance bombs
to push the lead to 28-18. He hit a step-back 3-pointer that was pretty, then he
hit a 3-pointer after a steal off the press. He ended his personal air assault
with a long 3-pointer from the wing. To add insult to injury, he was fouled on
the play by Kwamain Mitchell. Luckily, he missed the free throw. Too close to
the basket, I guess.
Just as we are trying to recover from Richmond’s 3-point riff, along comes
6’9” sophomore Orion Outerbridge, who proceeds to throw down a sick
one-handed tip-dunk with such force that he injures his shoulder on the play.
That one-handed throw-down was LeBron James like. Unfortunately, Outerbridge was
lost for the rest of the game for the shoulder injury. But it was quite possibly
the most impressive dunk I’ve seen against a Billiken team in many years.
Most teams would have been counted out after such a quick and decisive flurry of
power shots.
Cue the Bill Conti music please.
Not the Billikids. They trailed 30-18 with four minutes left in the first half
after the dunk, but managed to tighten things up defensively to hold the Rams
scoreless for the rest of the half. We managed to score six points to cut the
lead to 30-24 at halftime.
The inevitable second-half rally came and the Billikens fought their way back
into the game, but not without some adventure. Usually, free throw shooting is
our Achilles Heel, but turnovers decided to join the party as well. We were
quite liberal with the basketball with 17 turnovers and Rhody’s full-court
pressure had a lot to do with it.
When we managed to hold on to the ball, we shot a blistering 59 percent from the
field in the second half. Meanwhile, the defense remained stout as we held the
Rams to 35 percent shooting for the game. Rhody is a high-scoring outfit that
averages 77 points a game, but we held them to 57.
SLU trailed 51-49 with about six minutes left, but a decisive 12-0 run put the
game away. The play of the game came with just over four minutes left with the
Bills leading 53-51.  Rhody had the ball, but Christian Salecich stole a pass of
the left wing and drove in for a layup to give us a 55-51 lead. Rhody was held
to one field goal for the final six minutes of the game and the Bills had their
17th win.
I loved the balanced scoring. Kwamain led the way with 13 points and four
assists. Kyle Cassity (pictured) was next with 11 points in a fine all-around
effort. Kyle also had six rebounds, five assists, two steals and several stellar
defensive plays. After hitting four of five from 3-point range against Dayton,
Kyle scored many of his points on strong drives to the hoop against Rhody.
Christian and Willie Reed chipped in with 10 points. Christian is starting to
find his offensive groove again. He hit four of his six field goal attempts. He
really has that rhythm jumper going with the power dribble to his left to set up
his shot.
Willie added nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals to his 10 points. The guys
did a great job of getting Willie involved in the offense early. He got some
touches and scored and put some early fouls of Rhody’s bigs. That was
important because of that foul trouble and Outerbridge’s injury left the Rams
really thin up front and the Bills took advantage by scoring on the drive and in
the paint several times in the second half.
In some ways, this victory was even bigger than the emotional one against
Dayton. It was an incredible win on Saturday, but to follow it up with another
big victory against another quality team is just as big, especially when we
struggled at times with taking care of the ball. When it came to winning time,
the Billikids found a way to get it done.
In past years, when we had a huge, emotional victory in February, we seemed to
fade down the stretch. It was like that victory was our final salvo and we had
nothing left.
It happened in 2006 when we had a huge victory at Chalotte, but lost our last
three of the season, including an ugly blowout loss to St. Joseph’s in
Atlantic City. Last year, we had the big home victory over Dayton, but lost four
of our last five to end the season.
I admit to being a little concerned about this again, especially when we went
down by 12 points. Now, with the victory, we are firmly entrenched in the race
for the Atlantic 10 regular-season title. The schedule is a bear down the
stretch, but we are not in position to challenge for the top spot with everyone
else.
Buckle up, folks. In the words of a famous St. Louis wordsmith, “It’s
Getting Hot in Herre!” (yes folks, there are two r’s in the title)
Go Bills!