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ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis shut down Xavier 61-47 this afternoon in an Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball game at Savvis Center. The Billikens stretched their winning streak to three and moved into a tie for second place in the A-10 with Charlotte.

"I am so pleased with so many aspects of our play today - effort, defensive intensity, offensive execution - that I'm confident saying that was our best game this season at Savvis," said Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "We're starting to get it defensively, and our offense is improving, so we're pretty excited about where we can go from here."

Saint Louis controlled the tempo of the game in the opening half and broke away from a 7-7 tie on freshman guard Kevin Lisch's threeball. SLU built the lead to 29-16 on senior guard Anthony Drejaj's triple, forcing Xavier coach Sean Miller to call timeout with 3:45 on the clock. Coming out of that break, Xavier picked up the defensive intensity and forced a pair of Billiken turnovers in the final minutes and closed the half with a 9-2 run.

"We've had some slow starts to games this year, but I knew we were ready at the first television timeout," Soderberg said. "They were locked in and ready to defend. That's always a great sign."

The Billikens started quickly in the second half as Lisch buried a triple and scored on a lay-in, and freshman guard Tommie Liddell slammed on a breakaway after a Drejaj steal. That caused another Xavier timeout.

"We didn't think we were in bad shape down just six at halftime, but that early run in the second half was a knockout blow," Musketeers head coach Sean Miller said. "Then you're calling timeouts just to survive."

After Liddell and senior forward Vas'Shun Newborne scored back-to-back lay-ups, the Billikens led 50-32 with 9:27 to play, bringing the Savvis crowd to its feet. The Bills pushed the lead to 59-38 on junior center Ian Vouyoukas' two free throws before settling for the final margin.

Saint Louis held Xavier's second-leading scorer Stanley Burrell, who was averaging 14.7 points per game entering the game, without a field goal or a point. XU senior forward Brian Thornton was the only Musketeer in double figures with 11 points. Forward Justin Doellman led XU with seven rebounds as the Musketeers out-rebounded the Bills 37-34, but XU committed 17 turnovers. Xavier (13-6, 4-4) shot 35.2 percent from the field, 8.3 percent (1-12) from the arc and 72.7 percent from the free throw line.

"I think Saint Louis' defense is as good as anyone's in the country," said Miller, who watched his club lose to SLU for the second time in two weeks.

Despite playing only 18 minutes while being plagued by foul trouble, Lisch led the Bills with 15 points after being named A-10 Rookie of the Week earlier in the day. Vouyoukas chipped in with 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Liddell handed out a game-high five assists. SLU got a huge lift from sophomore point guard Dwayne Polk, whose intense ball pressure bothered the XU backcourt all afternoon. SLU shot 41.5 percent from the field, 31.3 percent from the arc and 70.6 percent from the free throw line.

Saint Louis (12-9, 6-3) visits Dayton on Sat., Feb. 11, at 3 p.m. (CT).