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Saint Louis cruises past Saint Joseph's

Feb 28, 2013 - 6:23 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Saint Louis' roll through the Atlantic 10 doesn't appear to be slowing down.

Dwayne Evans scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, as the 18th-ranked Billikens won their 10th straight with a 70-53 thumping of Saint Joseph's.

"Dwayne was outstanding," Saint Louis interim head coach Jim Crews said. "We had a lot of guys who were outstanding, but Dwayne was outstanding."

Rob Loe added 11 points and six rebounds, while Mike McCall, Jr. donated 10 points with five assists for Saint Louis (22-5, 11-2 A-10), which hasn't dropped a game since an 82-80 overtime loss to Rhode Island on January 19.

During that time, the Billikens have rode the wave to the top of the league standings. In that same span, the inconsistent Hawks have won as many games (5) as they have lost.

Ronald Roberts, Jr. scored a game-best 25 points to go along with seven boards for Saint Joseph's (15-11, 6-7), which made just 32.6 percent of its shots in defeat.

"We competed, but we didn't play well enough," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli admitted. "We've got to get our pace back and I though we were just passive. We prepared the right away but we just played too much sideline to sideline."

The Billikens jumped out to a 9-4 advantage on Loe's three-pointer nearly four minutes in, and the home team kept the Hawks at an arm's length with Cody Ellis' trey pushing the margin to 23-15. It was Ellis' only field goal of the game.

Evans' layup gave Saint Louis its first double-digit lead at 27-17, but the Hawks responded with a 10-2 spurt to narrow the deficit to two. Langston Galloway's 3-pointer and two Chris Wilson free throws capped the stretch.

Halftime came at a great time for the Billikens. The intermission broke the Hawks' momentum, and the Billikens came out strong to take control. McCall buried a wing trey and Kwamain Mitchell converted in transition to propel the Billikens to a 45-32 lead.

Saint Louis managed 16 points in the first six-plus minutes and advanced its cause even further with Jake Barnett's lay-in for a 47-32 lead nearing the 12- minute mark. The Billikens kept a margin close to 15 until they extended it out even further in the final minutes.

Game Notes

The Hawks couldn't buy a basket inside or out. They made only 3-of-17 from long range ... Saint Louis held a 41-29 advantage on the backboards ... Galloway scored 11 for the Hawks despite making only 2-of-11 from the floor ... Saint Louis leads the all-time series, 7-2.