A-10 Tourney: St. Joe's 61, Richmond 45

ATLANTIC CITY --The internet is a little spotty here, but it's finally back working as 5-seed Saint Joseph's goes up against 4-seed Richmond in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.

0:17.7 2nd Half, St. Joe's 61, Richmond 45

Sylla hits a transition jumper, and it is now a 13-point game. If Richmond had hit some threes, this would be a legit game.

Carr hits with the shot clock winding down. This is becoming real commonplace.

3:34 2nd Half, St. Joe's 54, Richmond 37

There's no shot clock today for the Hawks, just a timer for seconds until they will score. Govens shoots a three in Harper's eye as the clock winds down, and the Hawks lead by 17. Richmond isn't hitting anything. The Spiders may be getting looks outside, but they are being absolutely shut down in the paint. Govens blocks a guard inside so hard that he forces a jump ball.

Williamson absolutely rejects Sylla, but to his dismay, the play was a little too violent for the refs' liking. Nivins now comes flying through the air for a block, but it's called a goaltend. He was a good 11 feet in the air, a la the Mark Tyndale block early this year.

I have to take this time to complain about the Richmond mascot. The Spider, which started the game as a normal-person type of costume and is now blown up with air, has only four limbs! If I didn't know Richmond's nickname I'd have thought they were the bugs.

7:35 2nd Half, St. Joe's 47, Richmond 33

Just lost my last post due to flickering internet, but the Hawks are still keeping Richmond at a distance. Ferguson leaves Anderson open for a three though, and he gets Richmond to within nine.

Calathes gets the Hawks right back to a double-digit lead with a three after Carr cleared out the space for him.

Calathes now blocks Geriot from behind rather impressively, without drawing a foul. He's got three blocks now, I believe.

As Nivins powers his way for two, St. Joe's has opened up a nice lead. If you would have asked me, I'd say St. Joe's was the favorite, but perhaps not by this much.

14:58 2nd Half, St. Joe's 35, Richmond 26

Anderson ends the Hawks' 8-0 run, and his team gets the ball right back with a turnover.

Calathes gets off a nasty block and is able to keep the ball inbounds as well. Ferguson is left for another three - he still hasn't missed a shot.

The Spiders can't seem to muscle anything inside, but Geriot drives to the hoop for an and-1, and is real pumped about it.

A guy sits down next to me that I've never seen before and just starts talking to me immediately, about how he swears he saw this guy, the St. Peter's coach while he was walking around. I at first think he just believes I'm someone I'm not, but he's been looking at me for a good minute. Finally, he realizes that I'm not the person he thinks I am, and is in the wrong seat, about 15 feet from where he actually is. I guess white guys with black hair aren't uncommon.

______ Stats: Ferguson is 4-for-4 from the field, and unlike last game, Nivins has started 3-of-3, leading the team with 10 and seven points, respectively. No one has made more than two shots for the Spiders, though they are shooting a respectable 40.9 percent from the floor.

Halftime, St. Joe's 30, Richmond 22

Calathes, who has great vision on his passes, calmly finds Ferguson in the corner for a three with the first-half clock winding down. The Hawks' lead was down to two, but they score the final six points of the half to lead a barnburner, 30-22.

0:45.3 1st Half, St. Joe's 27, Richmond 22

Carr misses one of his patented driving bank shots, and Harper gets to the line, slicing the Hawks lead to five.

Williamson helps on the drive, and Anderson drains a wide open three from the corner, but Richmond forgets about Calathes on the other end, and it's back to a two-possession game.

3:36 1st Half, St. Joe's 16, Richmond 24

Ferguson, believe it or not, is already in double-figures thanks to a nice eight-foot jumper.

Kevin Smith throws a kickout pass out of bounds. You'd hope it was some kind of a miscommunication. Justin Harper then misses a three, and the Hawks arereally controlling. Nivins gets a monster rebound and puts it back for a two.

Richmond's Kevin Anderson finally ends the drought, but the Spiders' early lead is long gone. Anderson is semi-trapped by Carr and Nivins, and carries to turn it over. He makes a great pass for a deuce, but David Gonzalvez (no, according to the media guide that's not a typo) compensates with another bad turnover.

7:41 1st Half, St. Joe's 17, Richmond 12

Calathes makes a nice feed inside to Nivins for two, and then Ferguson hits a jumper to take the lead. He's almost in double-figures already.

After a Williamson offensive foul, Ouar Sylla for the Spiders eyes up a wide open three, feels like

Calathes has the ball at the top of the key with the shot clock winding down and gives the ball up to Arvydas Lidzius off the bench, and the senior calmly connects on the finger roll to cap an 8-0 run by the Hawks.

The Hawks fans have actually showed up, unlike last night, and are ticked off at a turnover called on Darrin Govens. Phil Martelli's assistants spend the media timeout arguing with two officials, while the third official has a min-conference with the Richmond coaching staff.

11:12 1st Half, St. Joe's 9, Richmond 12

Gerit then hits Ryan Butler on a backdoor cut. Richmond's 10 points have all come off of wide open baskets.

Pat Calathes, on the other hand gets ridden down the baseline and gives it up. Nivins now gets called on a travel.

Ferguson nails a Spider on a screen that had to be illegal, and then turns around and hits a three. Calathes is known as the better shooting forward for St. Joe's, but Ferguson is deadly from deep as well. He shoots over 42 percent on the season, and made a few yesterday to aid in the blowout of Fordham. 15:32 1st Half, St. Joe's 4, Richmond 8

St. Joe's starts off on the wrong foot, as the Spiders use some nifty passing to get two open looks and go up 5-0.

Rob Ferguson fianlly gets St. Joe's on the board with a tip-in, and then Tasheed Carr gets to the hoop for the Hawks' second basket of the night. But then Dan Geriot hits a wide open three, the second for Richmond, to double-up St. Joe's in the early going.