ST. LOUIS - Mallory Eggert scored a career-high 16 points for Saint Louis in the Billikens' 63-45 Atlantic 10 Conference loss to Richmond Saturday night at Chaifetz Arena.

Eggert was 4-of-6 from the field and 8-of-10 from the foul line, setting career bests for free throws made (eight) and attempted (10). She also led the Billikens (7-14, 1-5 A-10) with eight rebounds.

Jamesia Price equaled her career scoring high with 10 points, going 3-of-3 from the floor and 4-of-5 from the stripe. She led all players with a career-high four steals. Lorreal Jones grabbed seven rebounds, while Janisha Gearlds made three steals to pull into a sixth-place tie on the SLU career chart.

Abby Oliver led Richmond (16-5, 4-3 A-10) with 15 points, and Becca Wann scored 12 points while collecting a game-high nine rebounds. Amber Battle and Liz Brown tallied 10 points apiece for the Spiders, who shot 50 percent (27-of-54) from the field and earned a 37-29 edge on the boards.

Richmond controlled the game from the outset, pulling out to a 13-0 lead with 14:53 left in the first half. The Spiders built a 21-point advantage before settling for a 36-17 halftime cushion.

Although SLU could not mount a second-half comeback, the Billikens managed to outscore the Spiders 28-27 in the final 20 minutes.

"Richmond came out on us with a great deal of intensity and energy from the opening minutes," head coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said. "They jumped on us and we never really recovered. They caught us off guard and really punched us in the mouth.

"With that being said, though, we never gave up, we never quit fighting. We remained competitive in the second half and went basket-for-basket with them. That's encouraging, because we have eight games left and that's what you want to see out of your team. We very easily could have just folded tonight, but we didn't. That's not who we are, and that's not what we're about.

"We had some kids who tried to step up, particularly Mallory Eggert," Gray-Miller said. "I couldn't be more proud of her effort. She took advantage of Richmond's younger post players and did a great job tonight. Mesi Price matched her career scoring high, and Jenna Mueller came off the bench and had a couple of big baskets and played solid defense.

"We're going to build on this, we have to grow from this, and we have to be better because of this."