23. Saint Louis (26-3)
For much of this season, Saint Louis’s only loss was a one-point defeat at the hands of Stanford that came at the end of November. The Billikens then hit their first real road bump when they lost at Rhode Island last week. Saint Louis had really stockpiled impressive wins in the A-10 and were doing some great work on the road, but surely they were destined to drop at least one game along the way.
Unfortunately that number grew to two this week, with Saint Louis’s slow start becoming a 77-62 loss at Dayton. A tough shooting day doomed the Billikens, who got 24 points and 7 rebounds off the bench from Kellen Thames. Another slow start happened on Saturday, but they managed to get back on track late for a 91-76 win over Duquesne. Robbie Avila soared with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists while Quentin Jones added 17 points in the win.
The vibes aren’t quite lost from that 18-point winning streak, but it’s also really clear that Saint Louis isn’t playing their best basketball right now. The late work against Duquesne was much better than what we’ve seen recently, but you could easily argue that Saint Louis has significant competition to win the A-10 Tournament in a few weeks. They’ll finish their home schedule with Loyola Chicago before an intriguing road game at George Mason next weekend.