LOUISVILLE, Ky.—To the delight of an overflow crowd at Knights Hall, the showdown of the top two teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference lived up to its billing as the No. 2 Bellarmine University Knights mounted a second half comeback to turn back the upset bid by No. 6 Southern Indiana by the count of 84-79.

The visiting Screaming Eagles came out on fire and hit their first seven shots to open up a 10-point lead over the first 3:36 of the contest. Although shooting just 35.3 percent in the opening period, the experienced Bellarmine team didn't panic and methodically began chipping away at the USI lead. The Knights cut the margin to just one on several occasions before the Screaming Eagles settled for a 41-37 halftime advantage.

The Knights simply refused to be denied and took their first lead of the game at 14:46 mark of the second half when Jeremy Kendle hit a triple to put Bellarmine ahead 51-49. As hot as USI was in the opening period, the Knights were even better in the second stanza, scorching the nets for a 72.7 shooting percentage.

After a Braydon Hobbs layup gave the Knights a 6-point advantage at the 7:45 mark, it looked as if Bellarmine would take control of the game, but a rare 4-point play by USI's C.J. Trotter combined with a BU turnover and a Jared Rehmel trey put the visitors up a point with 6:16 remaining.

After trading baskets, the Knights were able to inch ahead by three before two dramatic Bellarmine plays in the final minute of the game sealed the victory. At the 40-second mark, Nick Holmes hit Justin Benedetti for a 3-point attempt from the left baseline. The senior from New Albany, Ind., fired up the shot and the ball tantalized the entire arena by bouncing several times on the rim before dropping through the hoop with 38 seconds to give BU a six point lead.

Then, following a USI miss, Bellarmine's Chris Dowe got loose for a breakaway reverse slam dunk that sent the partisan crowd of 2,450 into a frenzied celebration and sealed the victory with an 8-point lead with just 22 seconds left in the game.

“This was just a great basketball game,” said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. “I don't care what level you're talking about, this was just great basketball. Both these teams came at one another for a full 40 minutes.”

The win extended Bellarmine school record winning streak to 16 games, and moved the Knights to 24-1 on the season while remaining perfect in GLVC play with a 17-0 record. Southern Indiana slips to 21-4 (13-4 GLVC) on the season.

Five Knights registered double digits led by Benedetti's 23. Game high honors went to USI's C.J. Trotter who hit nine of 17 field goals including five of 10 from beyond the arc to finish with 24.

Another highlight occurred with just 16 seconds when Kendle hit a free throw to become the 33rd Bellarmine player to record 1,000 for a career. Kendle joins Hobbs and Benedetti as current Knights in the 1,000-point club.

Bellarmine concludes its regular season by hosting Kentucky Wesleyan College in a homecoming game on Saturday at 8 p.m. as the Knights try to become the first school in GLVC history to post an undefeated league record.

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