RICHMOND, Va. – Fourth-seeded Saint Louis never trailed in an 86-72 Atlantic 10 Championship quarterfinal win over fifth-seeded Massachusetts Friday afternoon at Richmond University’s Robins Center.
“It was good to get a win,” Saint Louis Travis Ford said. “I thought our first-half defense was good. Tre Mitchell is a heck of a player. We got to a point to a game where we didn’t want to give up threes, so we gave him more space than we usually would. We grinded it out a little bit, we’ll play better tomorrow for sure.”
SLU saw Javonte Perkins lead the way with his 25 points, which included 11 made free throws. Jordan Goodwin amassed his 14th double-double of the season, totaling 18 points and 14 rebounds, five of those being offensive. Yuri Collins obtained 17 points, while Hasahn French, battled for 11 rebounds.
Saint Louis won the rebounding battle by a 45-22 mark, with a 15-3 offensive advantage. The 86 points SLU scored are the most in its Atlantic 10 Championship history.
“We’ve got guys with me and Has (French) that are supposed to get 10 each, that’s 20 rebounds right there,” Jordan Goodwin said. “We have other guys getting gang rebounds. That is one of the battles that we talk about every game. If we lose the glass, coach Ford will be the first person to tell us about it and we’re not trying to hear that, so we want to win the rebounding war.”
UMass was paced by Tre Mitchell’s game-high 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting, while also firing at a perfect 8-for-8 clip at the free-throw line.
“It was win or go home,” he said. “I had to leave everything out on the floor. I had to do everything I could."
Javohn Garcia added 11 points. The Minutemen which had 15 3-point shots a day ago, were held to a 6-for-21 mark.
“I just want to thank our seniors, there are a lot of uncertainties in terms of what’s next,” Massachusetts coach Matt McCall said. “It’s disappointing that we can’t continue to play but give Saint Louis credit. We got destroyed on the backboard and they are as big and physical as any team in the country. That is an NCAA Tournament team."
Saint Louis scored the contest’s first seven points, opening on a 13-2 run.
“When we see a defense like that we just attack, it works in our favor” Yuri Collins said. “We have people who can knock down threes and can make plays inside. It worked for us this time.
UMass was able to cut its deficit to seven points, but Saint Louis countered with a 10-0 run over 3:34 of first-half action as the Minutemen missed shots and were unable to earn second-chance opportunities.
Saint Louis, which is now 13-0 when leading at the half, had a 46-33 advantage after 20 minutes.
Massachusetts continued to battle in the second half, ultimately turning a 15-point deficit into eight points after burying multiple 3-point looks.
After Mitchell missed a chance to convert a 3-point shot of his own, Saint Louis went down the court, with Collins finding an open look, successfully swishing a triple.
“He was really motivated from our last game at UMass a few days ago,” said Ford. “They really played off of him a lot and I think he was determined to show he can score. We all know he runs our team. He can score, he just doesn’t look to score a lot, but today he did because it was there.”
The contest came down to rebounding, and Saint Louis was able to get multiple looks off its misses while also earning several trips to the free-throw line.
The Billikens finished 22-for-27 from the charity stripe on the afternoon.
“We were offensive rebounding very well which extended possessions and we got to the free-throw line a lot,” Ford said. “We didn’t have an enormous amount of scoring droughts in the second half.”
Saint Louis will face top-seeded St. Bonaventure, which was a 75-59 winner over Duquesne earlier Friday afternoon. The game will be played Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at VCU’s Siegel Center, and be televised by CBS Sports Network. The two teams played once before with Saint Louis winning a 70-59 Feb. 6 home contest.
This is a rematch of the 2019 Atlantic 10 Championship final which the Billikens won 55-53.