The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Media Credit: Rob Pendergest Rob Pendergest/The University News Freshman Danny Brown takes on Charlotte in Saturday night's barnburner against the nationally ranked Charlotte 49ers. Unfortunately, for the Bills, Charlotte came out on top of the contest in overtime. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Rob Pendergest Rob Pendergest/The University News Danny Brown dishes the ball from midair to fellow freshman Luke Meyer, waiting in the wing for a three-point attempt. [Click to enlarge]

The Saint Louis University men's basketball team got a reprieve from their gruesome Conference USA schedule last night when they hosted Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne. The Billikens shot a season high of 61 percent from the field en route to a rout of the outmatched Mastodons, with a final of 78-66.

Senior Izik Ohanon led four Bills in double figures with 20 points. Junior Ian Vouyoukas and freshman Luke Meyer each posted career highs in scoring, dropping in 18 and 14 points respectively, and freshman Dwayne Polk added 10 more for good measure.

The game was dominated from the outset by the Billikens, but a lapse late in the first half, as well as some ridiculous long-range shooting, allowed the Mastodons some hope as they climbed back to within a point of the Billikens at half time. But the score by no means reflected the talent levels. The Billikens were able to do the things they wanted to do when they wanted to do them, and they slowly, but surely, pulled away from IPFW over the course of the second half.

"When we got a chance to push, we pushed, and when we got a chance to pressure, we pressured," coach Brad Soderberg said.

The win pushes the Billikens' record to 7-17 overall and is a nice rebounding win after the tough loss last Saturday.

The University of North Carolina-Charlotte 49ers walked into the Savvis Center on Saturday evening with a share of second place in Conference USA. They walked out, two hours and one overtime later, with a narrow 83-78 victory and a firmer grasp of their own mortality.

The Billikens, keeping the pace and style of their past two games, a near-miss against C-USA leader DePaul and a route of South Florida, came out running with a young lineup of freshmen Polk and Meyer, sophomore Vouyoukas and two juniors, Anthony Drejaj and Vas'Shun Newborne. Drejaj paced the Bills with 17 points, and Ohanon wasn't far behind with 15. Vouyoukas and Meyer each added 10 but it was freshman Danny Brown who dropped in 12 off the bench and made what could have been the key play in the game when he nailed a three-pointer to tie the game up at the end of regulation.

It was the first time all season that the Billikens had five players in double figures, and it all came without the help of star player Reggie Bryant, who has taken leave of the team to attend to family issues.

The all-around team effort was all for naught, though, as Charlotte's workhorse, junior Curtis Withers, threw down a career-high 39 points.

"We rode a player tonight like we've never ridden a player in my seven years as head coach," 49ers coach Bobby Lutz said.

"It was a great game, and it turned out that we made just a couple more plays in overtime than Saint Louis did," added Lutz.

In the remaining weeks of the regular season and the upcoming C-USA tournament, Charlotte will be looking to capitalize on the depleted perennial conference powers, notably Cincinnati. The Bearcats were recently trounced by DePaul, and Louisville, who was embarrassed by Memphis.

With the balance of power in the conference now shifting back from two nationally ranked teams and back to a pack of young and hungry squads, anything is possible, even for a team like the Billikens, who are starting to show signs of life-as they typically do in the latter parts of the conference season-and who are no longer looking like a walk-over win for their first-round opponent in the conference tourney.

Rest assured, they will still be a heavy underdog; but an underdog with bite, which makes all the difference in the world.

They will put that theory to the test this weekend when they visit Freedom Hall and the ninth-ranked Louisville Cardinals.

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