Cody Ellis really brought the thunder from down under against St. Joseph’s as the Bills (19-5,7-3) won the first of their two road games in Philadelphia, 72-60.

Ellis led the team with 20 points, converting six of his three-point attempts and scoring five of his six three-pointers in the second half.

Brian Conklin scored 13 points and Kwamain Mitchell scored 12 points in the win against the Hawks.  This was the third straight game that Mike McCall Jr. started in place of Kyle Cassity. The Bills jumped out to an early 12-0 lead in the first 4:57. The run was capped by a layup by Mitchell with 15:03 left in the first half.

The Hawks would respond with a 17-5 run after the Bills jumped out to the 12-0 lead to tie the game, 17-17 with 6:34 left in the first half.

The game continued back and forth until the end of the first half when St. Louis reclaimed the lead at the 1:50 mark in the first half, 26-23.SLU will hang onto the slim lead going into halftime, 29-27. The Bills slowly increased their lead in the second half, 39-32. Rob Loe converted the first of many made 3-pointers in the second half.

After the media timeout, the Hawks went on a 7-0 run to tie the game again 39-39 at the 11:44 mark.

This would be the last tie of the game. After the break, the Bills jumped out on a 13-1 run.  The Bills had three straight three-pointers in the run was capped by a Mitchell three-pointer. This run extended the Bills lead into double-digits, 52-40 with 6:00 left in the second half.

The Hawks would cut the lead to eight, but would never come closer than that. Ellis was on fire in the second half. He scored all 15 of his points on three-point attempts in the second half.

The Bills made 50% of their three-point attempts, converting 10 of their 20 attempts. The Bills, who have been up and down with their free-throw shots, made 70% of their free-throws. SLU forced St. Joe’s to commit 17 turnovers.

The Hawks were led by Langston Galloway. who scored 15 points, and Ronald Roberts Jr. who scored 13 points.

The Bills are not done with this Philadelphia road trip. The Bills will play La Salle in the second game.

La Salle is led by Ramon Galloway and Earl Pettis. Galloway averages 15.1 points per game and collects 4.5 rebounds per game. Pettis averages 15.0 points per game and collects 4.2 rebounds per game.

The Bills are currently in second place in the Atlantic-10 Conference Standings behind Temple and will compete against La Salle in Tom Gola Arena at 1:00 p.m. central standard time.