ST. LOUIS—The No. 4 Bellarmine University Knights dropped a heartbreaking double overtime decision on the road at Missouri-St. Louis 87-82 as the home-standing Tritons overcame a 15-point second half deficit to pull the upset in the Great Lakes Valley Conference battle at the Mark Twain Building on Thursday night.

“This was no question our biggest challenge of the year,” said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.  “(Missouri-St. Louis) was a preseason top 20 team and the preseason favorite to win the West Division of the conference, but from the coaching staff on down, this was a team loss.”

The Bellarmine coach added, “I'm devastated, because I think we had the game in command, and we just didn't do the things you've got to do to win games.  The only way teams come from behind is shoot threes and offensive rebound the ball, and we gave up both of those.”

Bellarmine, which falls to 10-1, 2-1 GLVC, got a gutty performance from senior Chris Dowe.  The 6-3 guard put up 24 points despite suffering a toe injury that left him hobbled for much of the game. However, he got into foul trouble and was whistled for his fifth on virtually the last play of regulation, meaning the Knights had to play both overtimes without Dowe.

BU's Vance Hall also had a solid night, with 20 points and four rebounds. 

Joshua McCoy proved to be the Tritons' biggest weapon, scoring a game-high 28 points, pulling down seven rebounds and dishing out six assists.

The Knights, who entered the game with the ninth-best rebounding margin in the country, found themselves soundly beaten on the boards 40-27 as UMSL claimed 16 offensive rebounds to outscore BU 18-6 in second chance points.

The Tritons, who entered the game leading the nation in free throw percentage, did not disappoint the home crowd from the charity stripe, actually improving their season percentage by hitting 23 of 27.  Bellarmine also shot 27 free throws, but made just 17, giving up six points to UMSL at the line.

The game opened as fans may have expected from the teams favored to win their respective GLVC divisions with neither team gaining much of an advantage over the first 16 and a half minutes.  Bellarmine finally got some separation toward the end of the half as Dowe heated up and scored 10 of his 15 first half points in the final three minutes to help the Knights take a 35-29 lead into halftime.  

After the break, Bellarmine slowly established a 15-point lead at the 11:56 mark, but UMSL whittled away with 3-pointers and second chance points.  The Tritons (8-4, 1-3 GLVC)  completed the comeback at the 1-minute mark as they took a 66-65 lead on a  McCoy bucket following an offensive rebound by Kevin Dwyer. 

After a Bellarmine miss, the Tritons took a 3-point lead on a pair of McCoy free throws.  Hall answered for the Knights, converting an old-fashioned 3-point play with just 12 ticks left on the clock.  Then, back to back offensive foul calls on McCoy of UMSL and Dowe of BU ended regulation with the score knotted at 68.

In the first overtime, UMSL broke out on top early and when McCoy drained a trey to put the Tritons up by four at the 3:56 mark, it matched the biggest lead the home team had held since early in the first half.

However, the Knights came storming back with strong play from Jake Thelen as the sophomore scored six of the Knights' points in a quick 7-0 run to put BU back up by three with 1:36 remaining.  On the ensuing possession, UMSL came up with four offensive rebounds and Isiah Nunn capped the flurry with a layup on which Thelen was whistled for a foul.  The free throw tied the score with 29 seconds left.  Bellarmine held for one shot, but the potential game-winning shot was well off the mark, and the game remained tied at 76 after one extra period.

In the second overtime period, again UMSL jumped out early and led 83-78 with 2:03 remaining.  Bellarmine came back to cut the lead to just one with 23 seconds remaining, but the hosts converted four of four free throws from that point to pull out the victory.

Bellarmine gets little opportunity to rest as they are back in action Saturday afternoon at Maryville.  Game time is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. EST/3:15 CST.

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