SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—The No. 1 Bellarmine University Knights got 28 points from Jeremy Kendle and their defense allowed no second half runs to win 82-62 over the Lewis Flyers in the quarterfinals of the SCHEELS Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament in the Prairie Capital Convention Center.
Bellarmine (25-2) and Lewis (17-11) met for the third time this season with the Knights winning all three. In their meeting at Lewis, the Flyers erased an 18-point second half deficit before BU pulled out the 80-75 win.
“I'm very proud of our basketball team,” said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. “Our defense was outstanding; we held (Lewis) to just 33 percent shooting in the first half, and we never let them make a run in the second half because of our defense.”
After the two GLVC East Division rivals played the first 4:40 in a 7-7 tie, the Knights spurted to a quick 8-point advantage to create a little separation.
The Flyers cut it to six on two occasions, but Chris Dowe followed one of his own misses and Braydon Hobbs blocked a shot to start a fastbreak finished by Kesiten Jones to put the Knights up 10, and on the ensuing possession Hobbs got a steal and a layup. Lewis never cut the deficit back into single digits after that exchange.
Bellarmine cruised into halftime with a 42-26 advantage and extended the lead all the way to 29 in second half before the Knights coasted in the final five minutes of the game to win by 20.
Kendle hot the hot hand all night for Bellarmine and finished making 10 of 13 shots, including two of four from long range, and six of seven free throws to finish with 28 points to lead all scorers.
Dowe also made his presence know by flying all over the court to collect 13 points and pull in a game high nine rebounds. He also blocked three shots on the nights.
Senior Luke Sprague, who is the reigning GLVC Player of the Week , added 11 points for the Knights. he also drew praise from his head coach for his defensive effort. “Luke is really, really playing tough defense on the inside,” the 7th-year coach said in his postgame radio interview.
The Flyers were led by GLVC Freshman of the Year Ryan Jackson with 21 points, and Chris McClellan added 17. Julian Lewis pulled in nine boards for the Flyers to share game high rebounding honors with Dowe.
Bellarmine now meets the winner of the Indianapolis-Southern Indiana quarterfinal game. The Knights split with both squads on the season. “You're in the semifinals of the GLVC—the best league in America—so there are no byes,” Davenport said of the Knights' next game. “Both are top 20 teams,” he added.
Northern Kentucky will face Missouri-St. Louis in the first semifinal game tomorrow at 6 p.m. CST (7 p.m. EST). The Knights will play in the second semifinal game, which is scheduled for an 8:30 CST (9:30 p.m. EST) tip.
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