PHILADELPHIA -- The kids are all right. The NBA's really young kids, that is.

Fueled by 26 points and an array of dunks from Golden State Warriors guard Jason Richardson, the rookies earned bragging rights over the sophomores with a 103-97 victory in NBA All-Star Saturday's Rookie Challenge at the First Union Center.

	Grizzlies rookie Pau Gasol enjoyed this dunk in his team's win.

Richardson, the fifth overall pick from Michigan State, gave fans a preview of his repertoire for the dunk contest while earning most valuable player honors. Among his 15 second-half points, Richardson threw down a tomahawk slam in the face of Cleveland's Chris Mihm halfway through the second half and entertained the crowd again a minute later with a breakaway, 360-degree dunk.

More surprising than the degree of dunk difficulty, though, was the fact that defense was being played in the second half, particularly by the rookies. Richardson even dove for a few loose balls.

"Coach (Chuck) Daly got down on us about that in the locker room. That's his style of coaching," said Richardson said. "I remember him from the Pistons. I'm from Michigan, and he's a hard-nosed guy, something similar to my college coach, (Tom) Izzo. He told us to go out there and compete."

"I wanted a much more controlled game rather than a wild game where we're just throwing the ball all over the lot," Daly said. "I just don't like to play that way."

Quentin Richardson was the story of the first half, scoring 21 points to lead the sophomores to a 58-51 halftime lead. The rookies shut down the Los Angeles Clippers swingman after the break, holding him to one point on 0-for-5 shooting in the second half.

As a team, the sophs shot just 45.4 percent and committed 14 of their 19 turnovers after halftime.

"We had the mindset that we were going to have a lot more fun," Quentin Richardson said. "That's how we were last year. We came to the game, we were hungry and we wanted to win. … I think overall the fans won. They got a great game and a lot of exciting plays from both teams."

Seattle's Desmond Mason added some drama late when his driving one-hand jam cut the rookies' lead to 96-92 with just over two minutes left. But Jason Richardson followed with the play of the game, catching an offensive rebound in mid-air for a two-handed reverse dunk and a 98-92 cushion.

A 3-pointer from the right wing by Boston's Joe Johnson with 14 seconds left secured the win for the rookies.

The rookies also got 15 points from Memphis' Shane Battier, 10 assists from Indiana's Jamaal Tinsley and 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench from Detroit's Zeljko Rebraca. Darius Miles of the Clippers scored 20 points, Nets forward Kenyon Martin had 17 points and Chicago's Marcus Fizer grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds for the sophomores.

"It wasn't as sloppy as many of these games are," sophomores coach Billy Cunningham said. "That was a credit to the kids."

Joe Lago is an NBA editor for ESPN.com.