Robbie Avila hit a 3-pointer with :03 seconds to play to lift No. 21 Saint Louis to a 79-76 come-from behind win over visiting George Washington in an Atlantic-10 Conference tilt on Tuesday.
Avila scored 22 points, hit 4 of 8 3-point attempts and stole George Washington’s last-second pass to secure the best start in Saint Louis (20-1, 8-0 A-10) program history.
Trey Green tallied a game-high 23 points and connected on 6 of 10 shots from beyond the arc. Kellen Thames added 15 points for Saint Louis, which has won 14 straight games.
Tyrone Marshall and Christian Jones led George Washington (13-8, 4-4) with 15 points. Trey Autry contributed 13 points and Rafael Castro scored 12 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for the Revolutionaries, who are 1-3 in their last four games.
The Billikens took a 70-63 lead on a 15-0 run that featured consecutive threes from Green and Avila. It was the first Saint Louis lead since 2-0. George Washington though scored five straight points, all on free throws, to take a 72-71 lead with 3:40 remaining.
Garrett Johnson’s layup put Geroge Washington up 74-73 with 2:39 to play. Avila’s 3-pointer with 1:36 to play gave Saint Louis a 76-74 advantage.
The Revolutionaries hung tough as Castro’s emphatic follow-up, a two-handed dunk, tied the game at 76 all, before Avila’s last-second heroics.
George Washington jumped out to a 10-2 lead on Castro’s offensive rebound putback. Marshall posted back-to-back layups and the Revolutionaries had an early 14-5 advantage.
But Green nailed a three and Thames fought through traffic for a layup and Saint Louis trailed 14-10. A few minutes later, Avila’s high-arcing 3 swished in and tied the game at 21-21.
The George Washington lead swelled back up to 37-23 on an 11-0 run as Christian Jones turned a steal into an uncontested dunk. The Revolutionaries’ defense had the Billikens frustrated in the first half. Saint Louis shot 37% (13 of 35) while George Washington shot 51% (16 of 31).
The Billikens closed the first half on a 7-2 run that Quentin Jones capped with a banked-in trey to trail 43-33 at the break.
A Green 3 initiated an 8-0 Saint Louis rally and the Billikens closed within 50-45 with 14:51 to play.
–Field Level Media
