INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.--The No. 2 Bellarmine University men's basketball team won a thrilling, roller coaster of a game as Justin Benedetti hit a three pointer in the waning seconds to propel the Knights to a 99-97 victory over the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game tonight in Nicoson Hall.

After the Knights had established a 22-point lead in the early stages of the second half, the Greyhounds mounted a furious comeback aided by hitting eight of 12 second half 3-pointers.  The home team finally drew even at the 2:36 mark on an Adrian Moss trey. 

Nick Holmes put Bellarmine back up by two with a layup 30 seconds later, but UIndy's Darius Adams answered with a triple to give the Greyhounds a 95-94 lead--their first since the early stages of the first half.

The lead grew to three after Holmes missed a pair of free throws and Adams canned two charity tosses. On the ensuing possession, the Greyhounds backed off as Braydon Hobbs drove the lane for a layup to pull the Knights back to within one at 97-96 with just 15 seconds left on the clock.

Bellarmine was forced to foul, and Nate Blank missed both of his free throw attempts.  The Knights hurried the ball to the offensive end and Luke Sprague passed up a deep shot to pass to an open Benedetti who drained the three ball to give the Knights the lead at 99-97.

Following a time out by UIndy, Hobbs stole the inbounds pass to seal the victory for the Knights.

Both teams put up impressive statistics as the Greyhounds finished hitting 15 of 26 three pointers for 57.7 percent while the Knights made 11 of 20 from long range for 55 percent.  Inside the arc, the shooting also was good as the Greyhounds shot 54.2 percent and the Knights made 50.8 percent of their shots.

Jeremy Kendle had a season high 27 to lead the Knights, while Adams--the GLVC's leading scorer--put up 33 for UIndy.  Kendle also had another good rebounding night from his guard position as he collected nine for game high honors. Hobbs added 19 points, dished off eight assists and made three steals.

"Two things about this game," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport, "one is the that in the first half we played tremendous basketball...the other thing is that we were going on fumes out there."  He added that Kendle and Holmes were both fighting cramps in the second half.

"This was an unbelievable win," Davenport said, adding that Indianapolis is a formidable team that had won 10 straight coming into tonight's game.

Bellarmine improves to 16-1, 9-0 in GLVC play.  It also raises the Knights' in-division record to 3-0 with all three wins coming on the road.

UIndy drops to 13-3, 6-2.

Bellarmine returns home for a Thursday match-up with GLVC divisional rival Northern Kentucky. Tip is at 8 p.m.

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