The message came 30 minutes before tip-off from the man with his name on the arena.
Richard Chaifetz went on X, formerly Twitter, to tell fans he was on the way to the building to see ºüÀêÊÓƵ University play Massachusetts. Then he added the kicker.
“A game we must win,†he wrote.
However, not even a week with two home games could reverse SLU’s fortunes. The Billikens played from behind most of the night Saturday but could not catch the Minutemen, who held on for an 84-73 win.
The largest crowd of the season at Chaifetz Arena (7,423) was on hand as the Bills lost their fourth straight in the Atlantic 10 Conference, falling into last place alone.
Since starting the season with four wins, SLU (8-12 overall, 1-6 in the A-10) has lost 12 of 16 games. UMass (13-7, 4-4) bounced back after losing two of its previous three games by one point.
Gibson Jimerson led the Billikens with 16 points, and Larry Hughes II had a career-high 14 points.
The Minutemen’s offensive rebounding was a major problem for the Billikens. The visitors had 14 offensive rebounds, turning into 18 second-chance points.
SLU was chasing UMass the entire second half, threatening to catch the Minutemen but failing to get enough defensive stops to truly make it interesting before the final media timeout with 2:49 left.
UMass built its biggest lead, at 64-53, with a 10-3 run and a whole lot of offensive rebounding that led to second-chance shots.
The Billikens’ pursuit was built on 3-point shooting as opportunities around the basket were increasingly hard to come by. For an eight-minute stretch of the second half, SLU’s only field goals were 3s, with Hughes and Jimerson each hitting a pair.
The Billikens entered the game needing a win to stay out of last place by themselves in the A-10. Their previous two losses, to Virginia Commonwealth and Davidson, were by a combined 47 points. SLU had allowed 80 or more points in five of its previous seven games.
Coach Travis Ford opted to stick with the basic defensive approach for the most part except for a possession here and there showing a zone and fleeting attempts at a press.
SLU raced to an early lead on the strength of 3-pointers, an area in which the Billikens struggled three days earlier. They made four of 26 against Davidson but hit six of 12 in the first 20 minutes against UMass.
UMass, however, matched those six and rallied from a 15-6 deficit to lead 41-36 at the half. Djordje Curcic, a freshman from Serbia, provided perhaps the biggest minutes of the half for the Billikens, coming off the bench to score eight points to lead the team and get the deficit from 10 to five.
The Billikens had two big opportunities to pull closer, but Kellen Thames and Sincere Parker had layups blocked in transition, contributing to the Minutemen’s four blocked shots early in the game.
Jimerson carried a shooting slump into the game, and it was one of the few things that kept the offense from converting at a higher rate when SLU was trying to build on the early lead. He had seven points at the half on two layups and three free throws.
By missing four 3s in the half, Jimerson extended his drought without one to five halves, with 10 consecutive misses.
UMass coach Frank Martin used eight players before the break, and they all scored and had at least one rebound. Six had at least one assist.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ U. coach Travis Ford addresses the media on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, after a loss to Massachusetts. (Video by Ethan Erickson)
ºüÀêÊÓƵ University's Kellen Thames, left, and Massachusetts' Daniel Hankins-Sanford reach for a rebound in the first half of a game Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, at Chaifetz Arena.