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All of a sudden, things are starting to click for St. Louis University.

A slow and rather unspectacular start to the season and suddenly segued into a lightning fast in Atlantic 10 Conference play. And on Friday night, the key roles in SLU’s 73-57 win over St. Joseph’s at Chaifetz Arena were filled by the two players expected to play a big part in coach Josh Schertz’s first season at the helm: Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope.

Avila and Swope left their marks all over the win, just as was expected when they came along with Schertz to St. Louis from Indiana State. Avila had his first double-double at SLU, with 21 points and 11 rebounds (and five assists), while Swope just missed 26 points and eight assists.

"Your stars got to be stars in big games," Schertz said. "And those two guys were tremendous, but not just offensively."

It wasn’t just the raw numbers. When St. Joseph’s went on a run to take the lead in the first half, it was Swope who hit a 3 that put SLU back in the lead. When St. Joseph’s got within two in the second half, Swope hit a 3 to break St. Joseph’s run and a short while later, Avila scored on three straight possessions — a 3-pointer, a drive to the basket, and another 3-pointer that put SLU up by 11, with the crowd getting increasingly excited with every shot — and pretty much iced the game.

SLU is 2-0 in A-10 play, which isn’t what you would have expected when it was going 7-6 in nonconference play, with two of those wins coming against NAIA schools. Any questions about how Avila was coming back from two ankle sprains can be put to rest.

“Both of those guys have won at a high level,â€� said Schertz. “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ won 32 games last year. Robbie's got a knack, he's had since his freshman year, of making big shots. He wants those shots. I mean, some guys shy away in those moments. I don't know. It's kind of an innate thing. You can do it, or you can’t, and Robbie just got a great knack for making them. He made the two big ones. Isaiah was terrific down the stretch, closing the game. … I told Isaiah, he got 26 and eight, and that's loud. That's going to get a lot of pub, but the job he did on Eric Reynolds, I mean, the output that he had to give to doing it offensively and to chase Eric Reynolds through all those maze of screens and ball screens. Kobe Johnson, Kalu Anya, Robbie, I mean, that whole group, Gib, that effort they had to expand, the output, the energy was incredible. And really proud of them.â€�

Reynolds came into the game averaging 16.4 points per game and got 11, but on 3 for 14 shooting and 1 of 8 on 3s. As a team, St. Joseph’s (10-5, 1-1) shot 32.8 percent from the field.

SLU’s defense has really gotten going. Its past four opponents have shot under 41.5 percent from the floor. St. Joseph’s 57 points matched its season-low.

“I think the defensive ability has always been there,� said Anya, who had 15 rebounds and missed a double-double by a free throw. “We’ve just been really inconsistent. We'll show flashes of being a really great defensive team, but I think more recently, we've just been able to put in longer periods of time with just showing that capability. And I think this game was also a great showing of that.�

It was easily SLU’s best game of the season, improving on the A-10 opening win over Fordham, which previously held the title. The line of improvement for SLU starts with losses to Wofford and Grand Canyon, and now extends into A-10 play.

“We're continuing to build off of what we did against Grand Canyon, I think even Wofford,� Avila said, “and obviously, we didn't win those two games. We lost one by three. Lost the other one by almost a buzzer beater. But we built off of what we did in those games, how we competed, how hard we played, the effort we played with. And it's kind of contagious within everybody. We started building in practices after break, and I think that's allowed us to play the way we're playing right now and execute the game plans. And so we're just looking to continue to do what we've been doing these last few weeks, and try to continue to win games.�

This one was literally a five-man effort. SLU’s starting five of Avila, Anya, Swope, Johnson and Gibson Jimerson scored all of its points. Johnson had eight points and a career-high eight rebounds as SLU had three players flirt with double-doubles besides Avila. SLU got just 19 minutes from its bench, which had no points and no rebounds. Schertz, who wasn't thrilled with the play from his backups, called time out with 8:39 to play to get Avila back in the game after he’d been waiting about a minute at the scorer’s table, and from that point, the five starters played until Schertz was able to clear his bench with 22.4 seconds left. In that timeout with 8:39 to go, Schertz told his team, “It’s closing time. Let’s finish this.�

That’s when Swope hit his 3 to stop an 8-0 St. Joseph’s run. The shot made SLU’s lead five and St. Joseph’s never got closer than four the rest of the way.

“We were going to just put him in space,� Schertz said, “and he could drive it or shoot it, and he went to the step back going left, which is his patented move.�

“I felt like I could make the shot, so I shot,� Swope said.

Next up for SLU is another home game against another team expected to finish in the top third of the league, St. Bonaventure on Wednesday.