Spiders outlast Saint Louis University, 64-52

The University of Richmond has the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year and after Richmond's 64-52 victory over Saint Louis University, there are no doubts that it has a main contender for the award this year.

Senior forward Justin Harper improved his chances of following Kevin Anderson and getting the award by scoring 22 points, including 10 straight during the second half that gave Richmond a 13-point lead. He shot an efficient 7-of-9 and made 3-of-5 3-pointers attempted.

"He reminds me of [Scottie] Pippen as an NBA player," SLU coach Rick Majerus said. "This kid has unbelievable length, great timing, terrific touch.

"One thing I like about him, I'm one of the first ones in the gym and he beat me. He's out there shooting. He's a great shooter, he has great rotation on the ball."

Harper, listed at 6-foot-10 and 225 pounds, also had an impact on defense. He blocked four shots and got nine defensive rebounds.

Seventeen of Harper's 22 points came during the second half as he was limited to 10 minutes during the first half after picking up a pair of offensive fouls. He showed his range of moves, hitting a pair of 3-pointers during that stretch and also showing the ability to drive the lane for a layup.

"The foul trouble made it hard for me to get going the first half and I knew I had to be more aggressive offensively and defensively the second half," Harper said.

The Spiders played more aggressively as a team on the offensive end during the second half. Saint Louis came into Saturday's game with no player averaging more than 10 points per game and trying to limit the number of possessions in the game. That worked in the first half despite Richmond coach Chris Mooney's use of a full-court press from the onset of the game.

"They were going to try to make the game a slower game, more a half-court game and we'd like to get out and make it an up-tempo game," Mooney said. "Usually the advantage goes to the team that wants to slow it down because as long as you possess the ball you determine the pace at which the game is going to be played. Having been on the other end of that a lot, it was hard to get us sped up."

The full-court pressure worked well in the first half as the Spiders recorded four steals and got a 10-second violation against the Billikens during the first half. That defensive intensity carried over into the front court as the Spiders got eight steals and forced 17 Billiken turnovers.

Richmond held a 22-10 advantage in points off of turnovers as it also limited SLU's ability to get points off of turnovers by turning the ball over 11 times.

Smith was instrumental in getting SLU to turn the ball over. He had five steals and was at the top of Richmond's full-court pressure for most of the game.

Smith, who once described what he does as "dunk, pass and eat cookies," has shown a different dimension to his game recently. He scored 10 points, giving him double-digit scoring totals in consecutive games for the first time this season.

"I just do whatever I have to do for the team to win," Smith said. "If that's score 10 points or zero points, that's fine with me."

He also showed nice range by knocking down a pair of 3-pointers in the first half after going 3-of-10 for the year before Saturday.

Richmond, now 20-6 on the year and 9-2 in the Atlantic 10, test its eight-game road winning streak which is tied for longest in the nation when it travels to Philadelphia, Pa., for a 7 pm game on Thursday at Temple University. Temple and Richmond are tied for third in the A10 after Temple won 75-63 Saturday afternoon at the University of Dayton.

Contact staff writer Andrew Prezioso at andrew.prezioso@richmond.edu