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��ѿ��ý University and Virginia Commonwealth may both be 3-1 and tied for first in Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball play, but the game between the teams Tuesday night in Richmond, Virginia, showed just how wide the gap is between the teams.

SLU got overwhelmed by VCU’s rebounding, particularly on shots VCU missed, and got blown away by the Rams 78-62 at the Siegel Center, where SLU is now 0-10.

There were chances for rebounds on 44 VCU misses and each team got 22 of them. VCU had 19 second-chance points, which more than covered the difference in the final score. With the number of offensive rebounds VCU got, it took almost twice as many shots as SLU, 72-37, a difference so vast SLU coach Josh Schertz couldn’t recall anything like it in 27 years of coaching. With volume like what VCU had, it didn’t matter that SLU shot better than VCU from the field.

“It shows how far we are from that line,” Schertz said. “Until we become more physical, to win high stake games, high level games, you got to play with elite levels of competitiveness and physicality. I didn’t think we were very good in either area. That’s all we talked about coming here was how physical the game was going to be, what they do on the glass, how physical they are defensively, how much pressure they play with, our ability to handle pressure, handle physicality on both ends of the floor. And it’s eye opening.

“It’s embarrassing to me as a coach. The buck stops with me, I’m the one responsible. If we’re soft, that’s on me to fix. And I know the players are embarrassed, because you can lose. You’re not embarrassed to lose to VCU, it’s a great team on its home floor. That’s not embarrassing. You obviously want to win the game, but to lose in the way we did was embarrassing.”

“I’d definitely say disappointing,” said center Robbie Avila of the rebounding effort. “Borderline embarrassing.”

Much of the damage was done in the first half when VCU got 17 second-chance points and took 22 more shots than SLU. SLU got as close as three at the start of the second, then a couple of VCU runs put the game away early.

“I think it was strictly just mentality,” Avila said. “I think we came into this game soft. We knew what it was going to take. We knew how physical they were, they were a little bit more athletic, a little taller than us, but it wasn’t a crazy difference that we couldn’t make up for it. I think we just didn’t mentally come prepared to play that kind of physical game, and then the results happen.”

It was another game where Schertz didn’t go far beyond his five starters. The bench played 28 minutes total (seven of them because Kalu Anya fouled out for the second game in a row) and scored just two points (by Kilian Brockhoff, who made two free throws with 54 seconds to play) and had one rebound (by Dylan Warlick). Kellen Thames played just nine minutes, not because of cramping but because not much was happening when he was in. Schertz said the same went for the rest of the reserves.

Except for Anya, who played just 27 minutes, SLU’s starters played at least 33 minutes. Gibson Jimerson played the full 40 minutes and had 11 points, which actually is the most he’s had in four games played at VCU in his SLU career. Avila had 18 points, 10 of them at the free throw line, and eight assists and Isaiah Swope had 18 points and eight turnovers.

SLU (10-7) giving up offensive rebounds is not a new problem. Even while SLU was winning four games in a row, teams were exploiting them on the offensive glass. St. Joseph’s had 12 second-chance points and St. Bonaventure had 15. This was the third straight game a SLU opponent had more than 13 offensive rebounds. But this game took it to a new level.

“I told them our first meeting back from St. Bonaventure,” Schertz said, “that as a team, if we didn’t clean up the defensive glass, we weren’t going to be good enough to beat the high-end teams in this league. And tonight, this obviously exposed the highest level. They’re as good as there is in the league in terms of a team, but also as good an offensive rebounding team as there is the league. It was men against boys tonight. We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of our physical toughness, our competitiveness on the glass, our competitiveness in making those physical plays. And then we got to do the same thing on the offensive end. Because it wasn’t good either way.”

“I think mentally we weren’t fully locked into what was necessary to win,” said Avila. “Obviously, the rebounding piece, but offensively, we allowed them to take us out of what we do well. With the physicality, they were just pushing us out of what we wanted to do, blowing stuff up. I think we need to be able to come into practice these next few days with a better mentality, to be more physical on both sides of ball. And when teams are doing stuff like that, not allowing them to take us out of what we’re trying to do.”

SLU still comes away from its first four games with a 3-1 league record, which is better than would have been expected after barely getting over .500 in the nonconference season, and stays in Virginia to play Richmond on Saturday. SLU does have the misfortune of being one of the teams that has to play VCU twice, and the next meeting is in two weeks, which is not a lot of time to turn things around. There is a lot of ground to cover for SLU.

“There’s a lot to clean up from this game,” Schertz said, “a lot to learn from, but we see where the line is in terms of the physicality level needed to win a championship. We’ve got a lot of work to get to that line.”

So as well as SLU has played lately, was this still a wake-up call?

“It better be,” Schertz said.

VCU 78, Saint Louis 62

SAINT LOUIS

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Anya 27 3-6 0-2 1-5 2 5 6

Avila 33 3-4 10-12 0-8 2 0 18

Jimerson 40 4-12 1-1 0-3 1 2 11

Johnson 33 2-3 2-2 1-4 2 0 7

Swope 38 5-10 4-4 0-3 3 3 18

Thames 9 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Pikaar 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Brockhoff 6 0-1 2-2 0-0 0 1 2

Warlick 5 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 1 0

Totals 200 17-37 19-23 3-24 10 13 62

Percentages: FG .459, FT .826.

3-Point Goals: 9-23, .391 (Swope 4-8, Avila 2-2, Jimerson 2-10, Johnson 1-2, Brockhoff 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 2.

Team Turnovers: None.

Blocked Shots: 5 (Anya 3, Avila, Pikaar).

Turnovers: 19 (Swope 8, Avila 4, Anya 3, Jimerson 2, Johnson 2).

Steals: 9 (Swope 3, Anya 2, Avila 2, Jimerson, Johnson).

Technical Fouls: None.

VCU

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Bamgboye 14 0-2 0-0 4-4 0 3 0

Clark 34 5-9 0-0 3-4 5 2 12

Bamisile 30 8-17 3-3 1-3 3 1 23

Russell 24 2-9 1-1 0-1 1 2 6

Shulga 32 4-10 2-2 0-3 8 2 11

Fermin 23 4-7 0-1 3-3 0 2 8

Jackson 22 0-8 2-2 3-5 0 3 2

Jennings 14 4-6 0-0 2-6 0 1 10

Belle 6 3-4 0-1 2-3 1 1 6

Totals 200 30-72 8-10 18-32 18 17 78

Percentages: FG .417, FT .800.

3-Point Goals: 10-33, .303 (Bamisile 4-9, Jennings 2-3, Clark 2-5, Shulga 1-4, Russell 1-7, Jackson 0-5).

Team Rebounds: 6.

Team Turnovers: 1.

Blocked Shots: 2 (Bamisile, Jennings).

Turnovers: 9 (Russell 4, Clark 2, Bamgboye, Belle, Jackson).

Steals: 14 (Russell 4, Shulga 3, Clark 2, Jackson 2, Jennings 2, Bamisile).

Technical Fouls: None.

Saint Louis 42 20 — 62

VCU 47 31 — 78