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No. 16 Saint Louis fails to clinch share of A-10 title with overtime loss to Xavier

Saint Louis Xavier

Despite clawing back from seven points down in the final 4:40 of regulation to force overtime, No. 16 Saint Louis could not keep pace with Xavier in extra period and fell, 77-66, at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wednesday night.

The loss snaps and 11-game Saint Louis winning streak and keeps the Billikens from claiming at least a share of the Atlantic 10 regular season title with one game remaining. They are now tied atop the conference with Virginia Commonwealth at 12-4, but could fall into a three-way tie depending upon the winner of their final game of the regular season Saturday against La Salle.

If La Salle wins, it would move to 12-5, tied with Saint Louis. That would leave the door open for VCU to win the title outright with a win over Temple and finish at 13-4, or we could have a three-way tie atop the conference with a La Salle win and a VCU loss.

It’s all only par for the course in the Atlantic 10, a conference that already has five teams with 22+ wins on the season and if UMass wins its final two games, would have six teams reach the 20-win plateau. That all sets the stage for the A-10 tournament that will take place next week at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

In that tournament, any one of those 20-win teams could win it all and grab the automatic bid, not to mention the havoc (no relation to VCU) that we could see from upset-minded teams like Richmond, Charlotte, St. Joseph’s, and Xavier.

Get ready, Brooklyn.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_