CINCINNATI - Fifth-seeded Saint Joseph's ran away from No. 4 seed Saint Louis 56-37 this afternoon in an Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball quarterfinal game at U.S. Bank Arena. The Hawks stretched their winning streak to seven as SLU dropped its third straight game.

"Saint Joseph's defended exceptionally well, and we missed our fair share of good looks," said Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "The game was essentially the same as our loss to them in St. Louis, so you have to give a great deal of credit to Coach (Phil) Martelli and his players."

The Hawks overwhelmed the Billikens from the opening tap with aggressive, physical defense, and senior guard Chet Stachitas' trey at the halftime buzzer for a 33-14 lead put an exclamation point on SJU's domination. The Bills shot only 24 percent from the floor, went 0-of-5 from the arc and only 2-of-6 from the free throw line. The opening 20 minutes was a replay of the Bills' nightmarish 54-39 loss to St. Joe's during the regular season at Savvis Center when the Hawks held the Billikens to regular-season lows in points. field goal percentage and three-point percentage.

"We got behind early in each of the last three games, and we weren't able to climb out of it like we had earlier in the season," Billiken senior guard Anthony Drejaj. "Considering all the good things that we accomplished this year, it's a tough way to go out."

Saint Louis scored the first six points of the second h alf, but that was as close as SLU would come. The Bills went more than nine minutes without a basket, and the lead ballooned to as many as 27. Both teams cleared the bench in the waning moments.

"I never really got to touch the ball in the game in St. Louis, so we emphasized getting the ball into me," Vouyoukas said when questioned after the game about the physical play in the paint. "I made some shots, missed some shots that I should have made, took some off-balance shots and was defended well on some others. It was tough in there, because they have a lot of big players to rotate into the game."

Stachitas topped the Hawks with 17 points, and center Rob Ferguson tossed in 10 points, all in the first half. SJU shot 39.6 percent from the field, 50 percent from deep and 60 percent from the free throw line. Guard Abdulai Jalloh dished out a game-high seven assists. The Hawks out-rebounded the Bills 34-32.

Vouyoukas was the only Billiken in double figures with 15 points and posted his sixth double-double with 10 boards. SLU shot 31 percent from the floor, 12.5 percent from threeland and 47.6 percent from the free throw line. After taking good care of the ball in recent games, the Bills turned it over 15 times.

Saint Joseph's (17-12) advances to play Temple in the semifinals on Friday. Saint Louis (16-13) hopefully awaits an NIT bid.