Mitchell leads Saint Louis past Memphis

After Memphis counterpunched on a bucket by Adonis Thomas, the Billikens tried to be patient in their halfcourt offense. Except that Mitchell ended up trapped with the ball deep in his own backcourt with the shot clock ticking away. He took two dribbles and let fire with an extra-long 3 that found nothing but net.

"The shot clock was coming down, so I had to just get it up," Mitchell said with a grin.

That bucket with 4:51 left put Saint Louis ahead by four points. It also seemed to shock the Tigers.

Conklin, who hit 10 of 11 free throws, made two to make it 50-44. He hit two more a minute later for an eight-point lead with 3 minutes left for the Billikens, who shot 55 percent from the field in the second half.

The Tigers got as close as five but Conklin hit five free throws down the stretch and Jordair Jett added four more to maintain the lead.

"It's tough to go out like this when you really beat yourselves," said Barton, who blamed himself for the loss.

His coach, however, disagreed.

"The only reason we're able to have those wins is because of the players," Pastner said. "So the players deserve the wins. Coaches — all losses go to me."

Along the same lines, Majerus said he didn't deserve a whole lot of credit for the game plan. His players begged to differ.

"He holds everyone accountable, from the starting five all the way through the walk-ons," forward Cody Ellis said. "That's huge for everyone. And that definitely gets us over the line in those close games."