Crews, Saint Louis keep it simple

ByEAMONN BRENNAN
February 14, 2014, 1:52 PM

— -- SAINT LOUIS -- Saint Joseph's desperately needed a bucket. The Hawks had scored 40 points in 33 minutes of basketball; they'd made 1 of their 10 3-point attempts; they trailed by 11 with seven minutes to play. They were stuck. Phil Martelli called timeout.

You know that scene in the "Star Trek" reboot when scary Romulan Eric Bana realizes he's been tricked? "Fire everything!" That's what happened next.

Chris Wilson inbounded the ball to  Ronald Roberts Jr. Roberts handed the ball back to Wilson and edged out to screen  Mike McCall Jr., Wilson's defender. Wilson went right, flying by one screen and then another, all the way to the right side of the floor. Roberts pushed toward the lane. There he received not one but two simultaneous baseline screens designed to get him open on the near block. Meanwhile,  Halil Kanacevic set a pick at the top of the key for DeAndre Bembry.

It was a brilliant design. Yet neither Roberts nor Bembry came come close to touching the ball.

Saint Louis guard Jake Barnett had stayed on the near block to help prevent the entry pass. Jordair Jett had fought through the Kanacevic screen up top. Forward Rob Loe muscled Roberts almost 15 feet away from the rim. McCall never left Wilson. So, Plan C, Wilson wheeled out left again, got another ball screen from Kanacevic, and turned the corner -- only to be redirected away from the rim by Dwayne Evans.

All Wilson could do was shuffle a pass to a relocating Bembry in the corner, and watch from under the rim as Bembry took a bad, contested 3 with Barnett's hand in his face.

Jett got the rebound. Possession over. Martelli had thrown everything he had at Saint Louis, and the Billikens barely broke a sweat.

"That's how John Chaney's teams won all the time, because of the Temple zone," Martelli said later, after his team was held to 47 points, and 1-of-15 from 3, in 66 possessions on its own floor. "Now you have the Saint Louis man-to-man."