RICHMOND, Va.- Richmond withstood a strong Saint Louis second-half rally to post a 65-54 triumph tonight in an Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball game at the Robins Center. Richmond center Kevin Steenberge threw in 18 points, including four 3-pointers to lead the Spiders.

"I was proud of the way we fought back into the game, but again we can't have a first half like that on the road and expect to win," said Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "You have to give credit to Richmond for making the threes and to Kevin Steenberge, who came up big for them tonight."

The Spiders, who had been averaging seven treys per game, fired in seven in the first half on their way to a 32-23 halftime lead. Richmond scored the first eight points of the game as forward Gaston Moliva tallied on a post-up at the left block and Steenberge and forward Jermaine Bucknor followed with back-to-back threeballs. The Bills pulled back to within 13-10 on junior forward Justin Johnson's lay-up and had a chance to narrow the margin to one, but sophomore guard Danny Brown couldn't convert a drive to the goal. Spiders forward Drew Crank buried another trey, and the Spiders blew out to a 30-15 advantage. SLU point guard Dwayne Polk was fouled with 0.5 seconds to play on a three-point attempt and made 2-of-3 tosses to pull the Bills to a nine-point deficit at the half.

Saint Louis came out of the locker room with greater resolve and held the Spiders to one field goal for the first 8:43 of the second half and took its first lead of the game 38-36 on Danny Brown trey with 10:09 to play. After UR's Bucknor tied the game with a pair of free throws, Brown drilled another triple to give SLU its largest lead. After the Spiders' Peter Thomas made one free throw, Steenberge nailed another thee for a one-point UR lead. SLU center Ian Vouyoukas countered with a lay-up off a pretty Luke Meyer feed for the Bills' last lead at 43-42 at the 6:29 mark. Steenberge and Thomas knocked down back-to-back treys to give UR the breathing room it needed at 48-43 with 5:14 to play.

Richmond (10-7, 3-1) knocked down 17-of-22 free throws the rest of the way to withstand three Kevin Lisch bombs down the stretch. Bucknor nailed 11-of-13 from the line to finish with a game-high 24 points. The Spiders shot only 26.3 percent from the field in the second half to finish at 39.5 percent for the game. UR shot 37 percent from the arc and 70 percent from the free throw line.

Senior guard Anthony Drejaj topped the Bills with 14 points, Vouyoukas finished with 12 and Lisch tossed in 11. The Bills shot 36.5 percent from the field, 31.6 percent from deep and 66.7 percent from the line. Although SLU out-rebounded the Spiders 36-31, the Bills hurt themselves with 16 turnovers while UR only had nine.

Saint Louis (8-8, 2-2) visits Xavier on Sun., Jan.22, at 6 p.m. (CT).