CONWAY, S.C. – Saint Louis shot 57.7 percent in the second half as the Billikens topped Wyoming 79-69 Thursday in the opening game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational at the HTC Center.
SLU (4-0) advances to face Vermont (3-0) on Friday morning at 11 a.m. (St. Louis time) on ESPN2. The Catamounts rallied from 15 points down to defeat College of Charleston 73-64 on Thursday to advance to the winner's bracket.
Sincere Parker scored a career-high 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor and snagged a team-best eight rebounds before leaving with an injury in the second half. He did not return to the game.
Tim Dalger scored a season-high 17 points and nailed a pair of big 3-pointers. Kellen Thames got additional playing time when Parker went out and hit all four of his shots from the field en route to nine points.
Freshman Cian Medley scored seven points, dished out three assists and posted four steals. He did not commit a turnover in 17 minutes of action.
The Billikens still won the game despite being outrebounded 46-33, including allowing 22 offensive rebounds to the Cowboys.
Also, Gibson Jimerson had an uncharacteristic night while taking just one shot and finishing with zero points. He did end up as a +11 in the plus/minus column.
Wyoming jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first half before the Billikens slowly chipped away. The Bills went on a 9-0 run late in the first half, and the teams traded leads down the stretch in the first half before Wyoming went into halftime leading 35-34.
The second half saw the Billikens come out hot, with seven early points by Parker to give the Billikens the lead. Back-to-back treys by Parker and Dalger put SLU up by four three minutes into the second half, and the Bills wouldn't lose the lead from that point on.
The Cowboys, who came in as one of the hottest shooting teams in the country, did not go down quietly and pulled to within a possession of the lead on several occasions. But the Billikens would always get the answer and made shots down the stretch for a 10-point win.
SLU limited the Cowboys to just 35.2 percent shooting from the field, including a 14.3 percent mark from 3-point range. Wyoming was 1-11 from distance in the second half.
Saint Louis Coach Travis Ford - "Good win for our basketball team. Really good win this time of year against an extremely talented offensive team, a very physical team as you saw. We had to win this game in a different way than we have been and sometimes you just got to find out different ways.
But I thought the first half we didn't play our style of basketball, kind of got away from it for whatever reason. It was tough to get in a rhythm for us because they kept scoring on us in the first half. We made a few adjustments at halftime and got back to playing the way we want to play and I loved our scrappiness. I really, really loved how gritty and scrappy we were.
They were very athletic and very strong inside and the only way we were able to compete was because we had 15 steals tonight, which is an incredible number and we needed every one of them. To me, that's probably the biggest stat there was because when we got out-rebounded by 14 or whatever it was we got out-rebounded. Some of these numbers would normally say we weren't successful when you look at rebounding, Gibson Jimerson doesn't score, different things like that, usually that doesn't spell success. We lost ourselves in the game. Really proud of the second half effort and that's how we need to play." (On the second half adjustments) - "I wasn't happy at halftime, as you can imagine. It wasn't about the score, it was about how we were playing. It just wasn't what we want to take pride in, the approach wasn't there. To be able to take them from 47% to 25%, 26%, and hold them to 1-for-11 from three and have 15 steals, that's the reason for success. Obviously, we made a bunch of shots in the second half, shooting 58% and 71% from the three, that helps. But good things happen when your back is against the wall and you just kind of lose yourself in the game and not worry about anything else." (On playing without Guard Sincere Parker) - It's what you need to have success in sports in general, doesn't matter what it is. In sports in general, when you got a guy that's leading you in scoring, is the guy that can just go get you a bucket when things aren't going well, and he led us in scoring and rebounding, and you're in a tight game and all of a sudden he gets hurt, now who's gonna step up? That's the question. Now we can see what we're made of. You look what [Guard] Kellen Thames did. We don't win without that stretch. We probably won't win the game without Kellen Thames' stretch. [Forward] Tim Dalger got us off to a great start…That's what you need to have to succeed when you're a team that's still trying to figure itself out and we're just trying to get better every day. We're obviously not a complete package by no stretch of the imagination right now, shouldn't be with all the new players, but just got to figure out different ways to win sometimes."
Saint Louis Forward Tim Dalger - (On his confidence with the team) "Just staying patient, being prepared. Continue to try to find my groove, find my niche and find my role in this team. That comes with the offense and defense. Coach, gave me the opportunity to start tonight which is just a testament to me getting comfortable as well because whatever is asked of me, I'm just willing to do so that's all it was." (On hitting threes) "I know I'm capable. I know the people on this team and this staff believe in me to do so. It wasn't really anything just shooting them when I'm open." (On playing without Sincere Parker) - "It's just a testament to our experience. This is a very experienced group. Sincere had an amazing game, he shot well from the field, he did what he did today. We're a very experienced group so we just had to keep everybody together, keeping everybody locked in. It's great to have adversity like this, it's good for the team, but thank God we won. We'll take that and it's going to help us down the line."
Saint Louis Guard Kellen Thames - "I just know that coach trusts me and he gave me the opportunity to go out and the shots were just falling tonight. I know my teammates were looking for me and I was able to capitalize on those opportunities for us to win tonight." (On dealing with cramps) "We're working on that right now. Tonight and in the first couple of games this season I've been fine. I've found a routine. I'm just going to stick with that and everything will be fine throughout the rest of the season."
Quotes courtesy of Myrtle Beach Invitational Media Operations
