RENSSELAER, Ind.--The No. 2 Bellarmine University men's basketball team rolled to its second consecutive wire to wire victory in picking up a 75-54 Great Lakes Valley Conference road win at St. Joseph College's Scharf Fieldhouse earlier today. The win pushed BU's season mark to 15-1 (8-0 GLVC), which is the best start in school history.
The Knights were led by
Jeremy Kendle, who posted game highs in points and rebounds with 20 and nine. The Knights also got solid play from
Nick Holmes who had 16 points and six rebounds, and
Braydon Hobbs hit double digits in assists with 10 while not committing a turnover.
Bellarmine played solidly on both ends of the court in establishing a 10 point lead just 9:48 into the contest and cruised into the locker room with a 42-30 halftime advantage after shooting 56.7 percent while holding the Pumas to 42.9 percent.
Coming back in the second half, the Knights turned up the defense and extended their lead to 53-30 before St. Joseph's finally recorded their first points of the second period at the 14:07 mark.
"Our second half defense was tremendous," said Bellarmine Head Coach
Scott Davenport, "and that prevented the defending NCAA regional champs from making a run at us. I'm very proud of this team for their toughness and their togetherness on the road. We hit all of our goals for today. We just didn't take care of the ball as well as I would of liked."
All 13 Bellarmine players dressed for action got into the game, and 10 broke into the scoring column.
St. Joseph's (7-8, 3-4) was led by Jade Anthrop, who was the only Puma in double figures with 15 points. Anthrop did all of his damage from behind the 3-point line, coming off the bench to hit five of nine treys.
For the game, Bellarmine shot just a shade under their GLVC-leading average of 52 percent and outrebounded the Pumas 33-22. By clamping down in the second period, the Knights held St. Joseph's to just 39.3 shooting for the game.
Bellarmine now faces a particularly stern test as the Knights must travel to Indianapolis to face the Greyhounds, who are 12-2 (5-1 GLVC East). Indianapolis is on a quite a roll having won nine straight heading into their game against Lewis tonight. The Bellarmine-UIndy game will tip at 7:45 p.m. in Nicoson Hall.
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