LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Behind a career-high 31 points from Keisten Jones, the No. 13 Bellarmine University Knights raced past the host Lewis Flyers 78-56 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game played tonight at Neil Carey Arena. 

The Knights (18-4, 10-4 GLVC)  strung together a terrific second half on both ends of the floor to extend a six-point halftime lead into a 22-point blowout victory.

Jones connected on seven of 11 treys on his way to collecting his career high as the Knights tied their season-high with 14 3-pointers on the night.    

“I'll tell you what we did tonight:  we defended,” said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.  “We talk all the time about defense creating offense, and (tonight's second half) is the greatest example you'll ever see.  That's as good a second half defense as we have had probably since I've been at Bellarmine.” 

The defensive statistics back up Davenport's assessment.  Bellarmine held the Flyers to just 38 percent shooting while outrebounding the home team 38-26, which limited Lewis to just four second chance points. 

The Knights also reversed the turnover story in the second half.  After coughing the ball up five times in the first five minutes of the game and eight times in the first half, Bellarmine had just three second half turnovers while getting five second half steals. 

In addition to Jones' stellar play, Bellarmine got solid performances from Chris Dowe with 20 points, six assists and five rebounds and Jelani Johnson with a career-high 10 rebounds.  

Davenport lauded Johnson's performance saying, “He was all over the place, it looked like there were 10 Jelani Johnsons on the floor.”  And of Jones' night, Davenport said, “He was fabulous at both ends of the court tonight. He had 31 points but he also had three assists, four rebounds, and three steals.  He played hard tonight.” 

While the Knights ended the game on a roll, they had a tough time getting started and did make a field goal inside the arc until the 10:40 mark of the first half.  Bellarmine finished the game with just two more 2-pointers than 3-pointers as they were 30 of 62 overall and 14-32 from beyond the arc.

The Flyers (14-8, 8-6 GLVC) also started slowly, and hit just two of their first nine field goal attempts while shooting just 29.6 percent in the first half.  

Despite their poor shooting, Lewis grabbed the momentum heading into halftime as Ryan Jackson drained a long contested triple as time expired in the half to trim the Bellarmine lead to six at the break. 

Lewis then scored on the opening possession of the second half to cut it to four, but Vance Hall answered with his first points of the game—a 3-pointer from the left baseline.   

After playing the first five minutes of the second period even, Lewis' David Bryant—who led the Flyers with 17 points—connected a triple out of the first media time out to close the gap to just three at 42-39. However, that would be as close as the home team would get as Bellarmine gradually extended its lead to as many as 25 at the 3:23 mark. 

Bellarmine now travels to Wisconsin-Parkside to face the league-leading Rangers in a contest scheduled for 4:15 p.m. (EST).

BOX SCORE (HTM)