Saint Louis holds off VCU rally to claim A-10 title

Just like apples and oranges, Saint Louis and Virginia Commonwealth were supposed to provide a false analogy in Sunday's Atlantic 10 Tournament final, an all-business team against a showtime gang, programmed to take entirely different roads to the championship castle.

Just like fact and fiction, it didn't play out quite according to that script in Saint Louis' 62-56 victory at Barclays Center.

At times, the two teams were mirror images, Saint Louis doing a lively impression of VCU's plunder-and-attack defense-to-offense up-tempo. VCU, the highest-scoring team in the conference, was having to deal with the kind of ordinary offensive production normally associated with Saint Louis.

In the end, each team's personality emerged in periodic bursts, although in VCU's case, a bit too late. Down 13 points at 45-32 halfway through the second half, the Rams cranked up one of their vertigo-inducing surges, outscoring the Billikens 13-1 over a 2:17 span.

But Billikens coach Jim Crews called a timeout and, his players said, re-established his team's identity: Calm. "Calm?" Crews said. "My wife says 'boring.' "

The VCU charge began with a behind-the-back pass that sprung sophomore Treveon Graham for a three-point basket as the shot clock expired. "I almost applauded," Crews said. "It probably wouldn't have been appropriate for me to applaud, but I liked that. That was good basketball. That spearheaded their run."

VCU (26-8) calls its frenzied defense "Havoc," a crowd-stirring performance. Saint Louis (27-6) calls its grinding play without the ball simply, "man-to-man."

"Basketball is not a game of perfect," Crews said, "and we're not perfect, by any stretch, but we just kept playing. Our team doesn't have any college rah-rah. They play with passion, but they aren't outwardly excited guys."

During its scramble to get back into the game, VCU forced three bad passes and stole an inbounds pass, and had the 7,535 mostly VCU fans in an uproar when 6-9 junior Juvonte Reddic dunked to pull his team within one with 8:52 left.

But Saint Louis quickly resumed bending VCU to its will. After going four minutes without a field goal, Saint Louis got five quick points from senior Cody Ellis , a three-pointer from senior Kwamain Mitchell and another three-pointer from Ellis.

VCU, its only lead all day at 2-0, never got closer than four after that. "Our style of play," VCU coach Shaka Smart said, "is to get other teams rattled. They don't get rattled. They're good inside, they're good outside and they play defense."

The Billikens held the Rams, the best three-point shooting team in the conference, to a dreadful 3-for-18, taking senior Troy Daniels -- the league's best three-point shooter -- completely out of the picture (zero points, 0-for-4 from long range).

Graham led VCU with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Mitchell scored 19 for Saint Louis. Senior Dwayne Evans finished with 16 and Ellis nine.