SLU senior Terrence Hargrove (22) was one of six Billiken players to score in double figures in Saturday’s win over George Washington. (Photo: Cedric Williams)

NCAA Men’s Basketball	1	2	Final
George Washington (14-13, 3-11)	42	49	91
Saint Louis University (10-17, 3-11)	55	41	96

Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

ST. LOUIS, MO — When the news came down that leading scorer Sincere Parker wouldn’t be able to play in Saturday’s game against George Washington, Saint Louis University men’s basketball coach Travis Ford wasn’t exactly sure how his team would cope.

Parker had been on a scoring tear lately — earning himself Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week honors a couple of weeks ago — and often times, the junior guard/forward was carrying the Billiken offense.

Another issue going into Saturday’s game was George Washington being one of the top scoring teams in the conference, which left Ford wondering if his club would even be able to keep up with the Revolutionaries.

Well, Ford got his answer pretty quick, as the Billikens came out and scored a season-best 55 points in the first half and rode that wave to a 96-91 win at Chaifetz Arena.

“We were concerned without Sincere could we do it,” Ford said. “You almost have to go out and outscore (GW). I was concerned, do we need to slow it down? But I told the staff we were going to run early and see what it looks like, and I liked what I saw so we stuck to it. It came down to two teams trying to outscore each other.”

Six SLU players scored in double figures, led by Gibson Jimerson, who had 19 points — 11 in the first half — and four free throws in the final 41 seconds that helped put the game away.

Freshman Cian Medley had a career-high 14 points and seven assists. He also made four free throws in the final minute, but those came after he missed two that allowed GW to cut its deficit to two points with 48 seconds left in the game.

Saint Louis had been leading the entire second half, but the two-point edge was as close as the game had been since early in the first half, when the game was tied four times and the lead changed hands five times.

Medley’s misses could have been disastrous, but given a second and third chance, the freshman sank the ones that mattered most.

“I wasn’t happy about (those) misses,” Medley said. “So I knew when I got another chance, I had to knock ’em down. I was glad I did. I’m a good free throw shooter. I should be able to make those.”

Other Billiken players who stood out included Larry Hughes II, who had 14 points, Terrence Hargrove, Jr., who had 13 points, Kellen Thames, who scored 11 points, and Bradley Ezewiro, who had 10 points. Freshman Djordje Curcic hit three three’s in a row to help SLU build its lead, finished with nine points.

“Coach challenged us to run our offense the same as we do in practice,” point guard Cian Medley said. “That’s the whole thing with us — translating from practice to games. … We always think we can get open if we run our offense the right way.”

The victory improved SLU’s record to 10-17 overall and 3-11 in A-10 league play. GW fell to 14-13 and 3-11.

The two teams are tied for last place in the A-10 standings. GW has now lost 10 games in a row, with its last win coming in January.

The Billikens will be back in action on Wednesday, when they’ll host Richmond in a game at Chaifetz Arena. The Spiders are 20-7 on the season and are tied for first place in the A-10 with Loyola-Chicago. Both clubs are 12-2 in league play.

“It feels good the way things have been going recently,” Jimerson said. “It was a team effort. We were flying around, the ball was moving and we had fun out there. There are things to work on, but this time of year you just want to win games.”

Tip off for Wednesday’s game is slated for 7 p.m., and the contest will be televised on Bally Sports Midwest.

George Washington 91

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
11	Bishop IV,James	*	39	11-20	7-11	5-7	0-5	5	2	6	6	0	3	34
04	Hutchinson,Jacoi	*	37	7-14	2-4	2-2	0-7	7	2	4	0	0	0	18
00	Autry,Trey	*	16	1-4	1-4	3-3	0-2	2	1	0	0	0	0	6
23	Akingbola,Babatunde	*	27	1-2	0-0	1-2	2-3	5	5	1	1	4	1	3
34	Smith Jr.,Antoine	*	20	0-2	0-2	1-2	1-3	4	5	0	0	0	0	1
02	Edwards,Maximus		32	7-11	1-5	4-5	2-3	5	2	0	2	0	0	19
24	Schröder,Benny		12	3-4	0-1	2-2	1-1	2	5	0	0	0	0	8
08	Weluche-Ume,Zamoku		12	1-2	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
14	Harvey,Keegan		5	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	2-0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	31-60	11-29	18-23	8-24	32	24	12	10	4	4	91

Saint Louis University 96

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
24	Jimerson, Gibson	*	34	5-18	3-10	6-6	1-1	2	2	1	0	0	0	19
01	Medley, Cian	*	31	3-7	2-2	6-8	0-3	3	4	7	2	0	2	14
02	Hughes II, Larry	*	25	4-7	2-5	4-5	0-2	2	1	2	1	0	2	14
22	Hargrove Jr., Terrence	*	31	2-4	1-2	8-10	1-7	8	2	1	1	1	0	13
03	Ezewiro, Bradley	*	18	4-6	0-0	2-3	3-4	7	1	0	0	1	0	10
00	Thames, Kellen		23	4-5	2-3	1-1	0-2	2	2	1	1	0	0	11
04	Curcic, Djordje		23	3-4	3-4	0-0	0-2	2	2	5	1	0	1	9
12	Zhang, Bruce		7	2-2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	1	1	0	4
15	van Bussel, Stef		8	1-2	0-0	0-0	1-3	4	1	0	0	0	0	2
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	28-55	13-26	27-33	6-24	30	16	17	7	3	5	96

2023-24 SLU Billikens Men’s Basketball Schedule

Date	Gametime	At	Opponent	Location	TV	Radio
February 28, 2024 (Wednesday)	7 pm	Home	Richmond	Chaifetz Arena	Bally Sports Midwest	KMOX 1120AM
March 2, 2024 (Saturday)	3 pm	Away	Rhode Island	Kingston, R.I. (Ryan Center)	CBSSN	KMOX 1120AM
March 5, 2024 (Tuesday)	8 pm	Home	#16 Dayton	Chaifetz Arena	CBSSN	KMOX 1120AM
March 9, 2024 (Saturday)	11:30 am	Away	St. Bonaventure	St. Bonaventure, N.Y. (Reilly Center)	USA Network	KMOX 1120AM
March 12-17 Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament	TBA	Neutral	TBA	Brooklyn, N.Y. (Barclay’s Center)