SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—The No. 3 Bellarmine Knights shook off a slow start and rolled to an 84-65 road win at Drury University tonight in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
Drury--the preseason favorites to win the GLVC West--jumped out to an early 8-2 lead as the Knights committed turnovers on three of their first four possessions. Bellarmine responded, however, as junior
Chris Dowe hit 7-of-8 first half shots and poured in 20 points to help the Knights get the game turned around.
Bellarmine stretched its lead to as many as 17 points in the opening period before settling for a 47-33 halftime advantage.
After the break, Drury had trimmed the lead to single digits and was on the verge of making a comeback, when the Panthers' Justin Jones was assessed a technical for taunting after a blocked shot. Immediately following that call, the Knights went on an 8-0 run fueled mostly by
Braydon Hobbs.
The senior guard hit two free throws, then drained a three on the ensuing possession and followed that with a blocked shot on the defensive end and finished the flurry with an assist to
Keisten Jones, who completed an old-fashioned 3-point play.
The mini-run put the Knights up 70-53, and the Panthers never seriously threatened the Knights the rest of the way with BU achieving its biggest lead –25 points—at the 6:04 mark.
“This is the first time a Bellarmine team has ever won in Springfield, so this was a great win,” said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. “That technical foul really changed the momentum of the game,” he added.
All five Bellarmine starters scored in double figures, led by Dowe who finished with 24 points. Hobbs put up 17 points while collecting six assists, and
Keisten Jones continued his solid play with 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Drury was paced by Alex Hall, who had an off-night shooting the ball but still finished with 17 while Ian Carter controlled the boards, yanking down 11 rebounds.
Bellarmine, the top shooting team in the country, finished at exactly 50 percent on the night making 27 of 54 while holding the Panthers to just 37.3 percent shooting (25-67).
The Knights were playing a bit short-handed as
Richie Phares was held out of tonight's game due to lingering effects of the concussion he suffered in December.
Bellarmine improves to 12-1 (4-1 GLVC) while the Panthers fall to 8-6 (2-4).
The Knights continue their GLVC road trip with a Saturday game in Rolla, Mo., against the Missouri S&T Miners. Tip is scheduled for 3 p.m. CST (4 p.m. EST).
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