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ST. LOUIS’ 1ST LEAGUE WIN SPOILS DE PAUL’S NCAA HOPES

After Saturday’s performance here, De Paul’s Blue Demons may thank their lucky stars if they receive a bid to the National Invitational Tournament.

The Demons were outplayed, outhustled, outthought and outcoached as Scott Highmank and Erwin Claggett led a 92-76 St. Louis rout in the Billikens’ first victory in the Great Midwest Conference.

St. Louis lost all 11 games in the Great Midwest’s first season a year ago. With Saturday’s victory, St. Louis improved its league record this season to 1-7, 11-14 overall. De Paul (15-12, 3-6) lost its last glimmer of hope to be invited to the 64-team NCAA touranament field.

“I thought De Paul would play well,” St. Louis coach Charlie Spoonhour said, “because if they won, they would be in excellent shape to get an NCAA bid.”

De Paul coach Joey Meyer also expected a good performance from his team. He received exactly the opposite.

“Our shot selection was pathetic,” Meyer said. “That’s getting to be a favorite word of mine, like `in life’ for Mike Ditka. We had no idea what planet we were on in our shot selection. We planned to go inside and get to the foul line, but we just jacked them up.

“We panicked a little when we got behind. Tom Kleinschmidt or Brandon Cole or Terry Davis would force a bad shot. Then St. Louis would connect at the other end . . .”

Game stats backed up Meyer’s words. Kleinschmidt, Davis and Cole collectively hit 3 of 18 from three-point range, and the Demons went 3 of 23 from behind the 19-foot-9-inch arc.

Highmark and Claggett were as good from long range as the Demons were bad. Highmark, a 6-foot-4-inch sophomore forward, hit 9 of 11 shots, 6 of 7 from three-point range, and scored 29 points. Claggett, a 6-1 sophomore from Venice, Ill., went 9 for 16, including 3 of 8 on treys, and scored 28.

But the top performance was Highmark’s defensive work against Kleinschmidt, the 6-5 sophomore from Gordon Tech. Kleinschmidt was leading the Blue Demons with 18.4 points a game.

Relying on “bump and run” tactics and a nearly perfect scouting report, Highmark allowed Kleinschmidt to hit 4 of 15 shots, only one of eight from three-point range, to total 11 points. He scored five of them in the meaningless final minutes.

“I wanted to take away his drive,” Highmark said, “so I put a shoulder into him and bumped him off stride before he could bull into me. I made the initial contact.

“We had them really well-scouted. We looked at a lot of tape. I know Kleinschmidt likes to go from the right side of the basket to his left. I’d beat him to the spot, but I had lots of help.”

Highmark said he realized Kleinschmidt was getting frustrated when he missed open three-point tries.

Kleinschmidt finally connected on a trey on his eighth and last attempt.

St. Louis’ plan for team defense, Highmark said, was to sag off De Paul non-scorers Mike Ravizee, Curtis Price and Peter Patton and help out against the three shooters.

The plan worked. Among them, Ravizee, Price and Patton went two for nine.

Cole led De Paul with 24 points but made just one of six on his threes. Davis scored 14 points on 6 for 18, including 1 for 4 on threes.

De Paul bobbled away 19 turnovers, three of them before the Demons ever got off a shot.