The Saint Louis men’s basketball team fell back to the .500 mark on Wednesday with a 65-54 road loss to Richmond. The Billikens defensive efforts improved dramatically from the first half to the second half, but another slow shooting night doomed them to the defeat.

Richmond hit 50 percent of their shots in the first half and jumped out to a 32-23 lead over SLU. In the second half the Billikens defense clamped down and held the Spiders to just 5-of-19 shooting the rest of the way. But Saint Louis shot 36 percent on Wednesday (36.4 in the first half, 36.7 in the second) and couldn’t take advantage of their defensive efforts. It was the seventh-straight game that SLU shot under 40 percent.

Anthony Drejaj scored 14 points for the Billikens and grabbed eight rebounds. Teammate Ian Vouyoukas had 12 points and eight rebounds. SLU fell to 8-8 overall and 2-2 in the Atlantic 10. The Spiders are 10-7 and 3-1.