"Our scouting report said [to] make him bounce the ball, and he didn't have many dribbles tonight, and a guy like that can't just tee it up," St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said of Ellis.
St. Joseph's is 15-10 overall and 5-5 in the A-10. St. Louis improved to 19-5, 7-3. It was just the second home loss in 11 games this season for the Hawks at Hagan Arena.
The Billikens, who scored the game's first 12 points, are eighth nationally and first in the A-10 in scoring defense, and they showed why. St. Louis entered the game allowing just under 57 points per game.
For the game, St. Joseph's shot 20 for 51 from the field (.392).
With St. Louis leading, 41-40, the Billkens pulled away for good by going on an 11-0 run. Ellis hit two threes in that spurt.
"We didn't have our transition game because we didn't string together stops," Martelli said.
The Hawks missed their first seven shots in getting down, 12-0, and committed two turnovers before Roberts scored the first points, on a follow of his own miss.
What saved St. Joseph's is that St. Louis also struggled on the offensive end. In fact, it didn't take that long for St. Joseph's to wipe away that early 12-point deficit. The Hawks tied the score at 17-17 when Carl Jones hit a runner with 6 minutes, 32 seconds left in the first half.
St. Joseph's took its first lead, 23-21, with 2:55 left, on a Roberts layup.
St. Louis had regained the lead at halftime, 29-27, but considering its start, St. Joseph's was in good shape.
Roberts came off the bench to score eight points and grab three rebounds in the first half.
Early in the second half, St. Louis broke a 32-32 tie with a 7-0 spurt, but St. Joseph's tied it with its own 7-0 run. Shortly after, the Billikens pulled away for good.
"We played a quality opponent," Martelli said. "But we were home and should have had more of a fire."
Contact staff writer Marc Narducci at mnarducci@phillynews.com, 856-779-3225 or @sjnard on Twitter.
