KINGSTON, R.I. - Rhode Island posted a 70-61 victory over Saint Louis Tuesday in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Conference Men's Basketball Championship at the Ryan Center on URI's campus.

With the win, Rhode Island improves to 19-12 overall and advances to Atlantic City, N.J., to face No. 3 seed Richmond on Friday. SLU ends its season 12-19 overall. A trio of freshmen led the Billikens in scoring Tuesday, paced by Mike McCall's 14 points. Rob Loe added 13, while Dwayne Evans scored 12 points and tied fellow freshman Jordair Jett with a team-high six rebounds.

McCall hit 4-of-8 from the field and 5-for-5 from the line. He also dished out six assists while not committing a turnover. Delroy James (17 points) led five Rams in double figures.

Trailing by two at the break, SLU was never able to gain the lead in the second half, but a late rally made things interesting. Rhode Island led by as many as 10 in the last five minutes before the Billikens got hot from 3-point range.

Loe sandwiched a pair of treys between a Paul Eckerle triple as the Billikens pulled within four at 63-59 with 1:03 left in the game. A Conklin layin kept the Billikens' deficit at four with 46 seconds left, but Rhody sealed the victory by making three of four foul shot and getting a fast-break bucket down the stretch.

Rhode Island took a 31-29 advantage into halftime in a half full of runs. The Billikens went on top 6-2 early on with free throws from McCall and Loe, and a basket by Conklin. Rhode Island responded with a 9-0 run and led 11-6 with 12:14 to go in the frame.

A James 3-pointer put Rhody up 16-12 with 10:05 left before the Billikens utilized a 10-0 scoring spurt to open up a six-point advantage at 22-16 with 4:53 left.

The teams traded leads down the stretch, with Conklin finishing the scoring in the half with a bucket to send the Bills into the locker room down by just two.