Billikens postgame thoughts: Butler

NEW YORK - For the first time in eight tries, the Billikens are going to the championship game of the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Behind yet another dominant performance by Dwayne Evans, Saint Louis defeated Butler for the third time this season by a score of 67-56 on Saturday afternoon at the Barclays Center. The Billikens (26-6) will face VCU or UMass in the A-10 tournament final on Sunday at 12:00 pm CT in Brooklyn.

Evans, who scored a season-high 25 points on Friday against Charlotte, recorded his sixth double-double of the year with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Over his last two games, the 6-5 forward is 15-19 (.789) from the field and is 18-20 (90%) from the charity stripe.

Butler’s Roosevelt Jones spent the majority of the day guarding Evans and noted how physical and tough the Billiken little-big man is to contain.

“He’s a very physical player,” Jones said. “He’s probably the most physical player that I ever played against in my life.

“I really thought that he should have been Player of the Year in the conference. He’s a real good player.”

The Bulldogs were led in defeat by Rotnei Clarke’s 16 points and 5 rebounds. Jones finished with 8 points and 8 rebounds before fouling out for Butler.

EVANS CAN’T JUMP?

Cody Ellis broke out of a shooting slump, going 4-8 from beyond the arc and finished with 13 points to go along with 5 rebounds. With teams starting to play significantly more zone defense against the Billikens, it is important for Ellis (or Rob Loe) to get it going from beyond the arc and serve as a zone-buster of sorts. If Ellis is hitting from long range, teams will quickly be forced to switch out of the zone and go back to man-to-man defense, thus allowing Evans to dominate down low. It becomes a game of pick your poison for teams trying to figure out the Billikens. Here is what Evans and Ellis had to say following the win.

BIGGEST FAN

Is there a bigger supporter of the Billikens than Butler head coach Brad Stevens? It’s not like he is saying this now because his team just lost to SLU for the third time this season, because he was gushing about the Billikens after the Bulldogs lost the first time. Regardless, he is a class act and college basketball could use plenty more coaches just like him.

PAY THE MAN

Brad Baer of Philadelphia stepped up at halftime and sank a half-court shot for $10,000. Prior to the shot, the PA announcer told the crowd that if the participant crossed the line, the shot wouldn’t count. Sure enough, as the ball was released, Baer’s momentum carried him across the midcourt line. Unlike the guy who was stripped of his prize at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis for an obvious rules violation, Brad was awarded the prize money. As he walked off the court, he smiled and said, “This is going to pay off grad school.” That’s one way to pay off extra years of school at Yale.

NOTES FROM STAMOS

Kwamain Mitchell’s nine points on Saturday gives him 1,531 for his career, good enough for eigth on Saint Louis’ all-time scoring list, 16 behind Tommie Liddell III.

Mitchell’s game-high five steals brings his career total to 162, third on the Billikens career list.

The Billikens are 5-0 in games this season where they force 20 or more turnovers.

Saint Louis has won 14 of its last 15 games, eight of those by double-digits, and is now 20-0 when holding opponents under 60 points on the year.

Saint Louis is now 6-7 in eight appearances at the Atlantic 10 Championship. The Billikens have made the A-10 Championships in each of their eight seasons in the conference and are now 1-3 all-time in A-10 Championship semifinals games, reaching the round for the past two years.