LOUISVILLE, Ky.—On a record-setting night, the No. 6 Bellarmine University Knights used an all-around strong performance to dispatch the No. 18 Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers 86-69 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game in Knights Hall on Saturday night.

The win extended Bellarmine's school record and nation's longest active home winning streak to 29 games and upped the Knights' 2012-13 record to 16-3, 8-3 GLVC.

The Panthers had an even longer streak snapped when they went 0-11 from 3-point land, ending a 691-game streak of making at least one 3-pointer in a game.  It was the first time since the introduction of the 3-pointer into Division II college basketball that KWC failed to make a triple.

Bellarmine jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead on a pair of Vance Hall buckets—one from beyond the arc—and led 9-8 at the first media timeout.  The one point margin would be as close as the Panthers would come as the Knights  went on a 13-0 run to fuel a 15-2 advantage in the game's second media segment.

The Panthers could get no closer than 12 for the remainder of the first half, and Bellarmine took a 41-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Kentucky Wesleyan closed to within eight in the opening minutes of the second period, but another 13-0 run by the Knights gave them a 21-point cushion, and the Panthers never seriously challenged after that.

“This game was tremendous,” said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.  “Everybody contributed, the coaching staff did a great job scouting this team, and the crowd was phenomenal.  It was a great day at Bellarmine.”

Hall led a quartet of double-digit scorers for the Knights with 22 on the night, and Chris Dowe helped set the table by dishing out 10 assists.

Jake Thelen added 17 points on six of nine shooting while Keisten Jones contributed 13 points and Ryan Burton netted 11.

Dazmond Starke led the way for the Panthers with 20 points on perfect shooting night from the field, connecting on all eight of his field goal attempts.

The Knights found their shooting touch, making 28 of 56 field goal attempts with 19 assists.  Bellarmine also did a good job securing the basketball, committing a season low six turnovers.

The Panthers managed to shoot 47.1 percent despite their futility from 3-point range.  Kentucky Wesleyan won the battle of the backboards 32-25, but the Knights still got off five more field goal attempts because they were a plus-eight in turnover margin.

Both squads were rock-solid from the charity stripe with BU nailing 21 of 23 attempts and KWC converting 21 of 24.

The win keeps the Knights in third place in the GLVC East standings, but they couldn't gain ground on co-leaders Wisconsin-Parkside and Southern Indiana, who posted victories tonight.  Kentucky Wesleyan, which dropped to 15-4 (7-4 GLVC), slips into a tie for fourth in the division.

Bellarmine stays at home for its next GLVC action, welcoming the Greyhounds of Indianapolis on Thursday.  Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.

BOX SCORE (HTM)