Box Score RENSSELAER, Ind. --- Pounding their opponent into submission, the Bellarmine University women's basketball team took down the St. Joseph's College Pumas 67-51 on Thursday night to keep pace in the Great Lakes Valley Conference race.

The Knights now sit in a fourth place tie with Southern Indiana heading into Saturday's bout at No. 15 Indianapolis. The Greyhounds hold a one game lead on BU and USI while sharing the conference lead with Lewis and Kentucky Wesleyan.

On Thursday, Bellarmine (15-4, 5-3 GLVC) outmuscled the Pumas in the paint on both ends of the court as the quartet of Kelsey Lamb, Morgan Clemons, Darion Hutchinson, and Allison Osen combined for 43-points and 24-rebounds.

With the game plan calling for going inside-out on the offense end, Chancellor Dugan praised her team's execution. “Running an offense inside-out is incredibly hard to defend, but both players must be on the same page to make it work. Our bigs were working hard to get good position and the guards fed them the ball which worked to perfection.”

The Knights jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the opening minutes of the game and never trailed while picking up their second consecutive GLVC road victory after winning at McKendree on Monday night 89-62.

Showing no ill effects of playing their second game of the week,  BU registered 13 assists on 15 first half made field goals while building a 34-11 lead at the break. Darion Hutchinson and Lauren Jones each had 10 points in the opening period with Bellarmine shooting an even 50% from the field (15-30 FGs).

SJC would not allow Dugan's squad to kick it into cruise control though with the home team going on an 18-3 lead in the second half to cut a 23-point Bellarmine lead to just 10 with 7:20 to play. That was as close as the Pumas would get with the Knights stretching the lead back out to 23 with just over two minutes left before settling in for a 16-point victory.

While St. Joseph's made their second half push, Dugan chose not to call a timeout to see how her team responded, “I think we did a real nice job weathering the storm when they made their run. I wanted us to learn on the fly and fight through it and I think they handled it well.”

Hutchinson finished with a team-high 18-points with Osen ending with 14 of her own. After outscoring McKendree's bench 54-2 on Monday, the Bellarmine reserves were again a huge asset, contributing 45 points to the cause, compared to only 15 for the Pumas.

Defensively the Knights held SJC in check for the majority of the game as the Pumas shot 18 of 57 (31.6%) with only two assists to pair with 14 turnovers. Kiki Wilson led all scorers in the game with 24 on 9 of 23 shooting.

The challenge now stiffens for the Knights as Saturday they will travel to No. 15 Indianapolis to take on the Greyhounds at 6:30 p.m. Audio, video, and stat links will be available on www.BUKnights.com. 

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