ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—The No. 1 Bellarmine University men's basketball team fought off a furious comeback by the Lewis Flyers to grind out an 80-75 victory tonight in a Great Lakes Valley Conference Game at Neil Carey Arena.
After the Knights had built an 18-point second half advantage at the 11:17 mark, the homestanding Flyers reeled off a 17-2 run over the next five minutes to climb within three at 63-60. Bellarmine halted the run when
Chris Dowe and
Luke Sprague hit back to back 3-pointers to extend the lead back to nine.
However, the Flyers refused to give in and put together a 7-0 run to close the gap to just two points at 69-67 with 2:21 remaining. After a Sprague layup, Lewis' Marty Strus connected on two free throws to again close to within a deuce. Dowe then hit a short jumper in the lane, Lewis's Ryan Jackson misfired on 3-pointer, and
Braydon Hobbs hit
Jelani Johnson for a layup and a 6-point advantage with just 45 seconds remaining.
Jackson responded for the Flyers with a layup with 30 seconds remaining, and Lewis was forced to foul coming down the stretch. The Knights connected on five of six free throws in the final 27 seconds to save the victory.
“I couldn't be any more proud,” said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. “It's tough on the road, and when it came time to make plays, our players stepped up and made plays.“
The Knights were led by Dowe's 23-point performance that included a highlight reel, one-handed tomahawk dunk in the first half. “I'm telling you what,” Davenport said about the dunk, “it looked like he had an extension on this arm.” Dowe also provided some defensive punch with four blocked shots, and he pulled down six rebounds.
Bellarmine also got solid performances from Sprague (17 points, 8 rebounds), Hobbs (16 points,7 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, 4 assists), and
Jeremy Kendle (11 points, 5 assists).
Johnson provided a huge lift for the Knights from off the bench, with six points and six rebounds in 24 minutes of action. The junior transfer from Western Illinois, who was playing in front of a large contingent of friends and family, also iced the game for the Knights by hitting two free throws with just 10 seconds on the clock.
The Flyers were paced by guard Chris McClellan, who had a game high 24 points. Lewis got a much needed shot in the arm in the second half as Nick Valla came off the bench to score 14 of his 16 points in the second period.
The win was Bellarmine's 15th in a row and propels the Knights to 20-1 on the season and 12-1 in league play. It marks the eighth 20-win season in Bellarmine's history and is the fourth in a row.
Lewis falls to 13-8, 5-8 GLVC. The Flyers have dropped just four home contests this year—all to teams ranked in the top 15 of the nation.
The Knights, who lead the nation in shooting, again shot the ball well, connecting on 31 of 57 field goal attempts for 54.4 percent, including an 8-18 (44.4%) performance from beyond the arc. Lewis was held to just 46.7 percent shooting, but the Flyers won the rebounding battle 32-29.
Bellarmine returns to action Thursday night when they host St. Joseph's College in an 8 p.m. GLVC game.
BOX SCORE