Box Score SAGINAW, Mich.-The No. 10 Bellarmine University men's basketball team opened its 2014-15 season with a wire-to-wire 84-67 victory over Northwood University in the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge played tonight at Saginaw Valley State's O'Neill Arena.

In his postseason interview, Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport went up and down the Knights' roster pointing out positive contributions made by his team. Among the best stat lines of the game belonged to preseason All-American Jake Thelen who posted a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds while also dishing out a game high six assists.

In all, four Knights notched double digit games with sophomore Josh Derksen tossing in a career high 19 points to lead the team. George Suggs, who battled foul trouble in the second half, ended his night with 15 points which included a 4-for-4 performance from beyond the 3-point arc, and Rusty Troutman chipped in with 14 points and six rebounds.

"It was a good win against a quality opponent," Davenport said. "You sort of had to see it to appreciate it. If you look at our goals for the game, we wanted to shoot 52 percent; we shot 53.8. We wanted 20 or more assists; we had 20. We wanted to hold them to less than 12 offensive rebounds, and they had six. The only goal we missed was 17 turnovers, and that just robs you of opportunities."

The head coach, now in his 10^th year at Bellarmine, added that he was pleased with the hustle plays turned in singling out Corbin Maynard and Chris Whitehead for their play. "Chris takes two big charges and that doesn't show up on the stat sheet," he said, adding, "I told him at halftime those plays only show up in championships."

The Knights held a comfortable margin throughout most of the game and took a 45-32 cushion into halftime. After the break, a Bellarmine 8-0 run gave the Knights a 24-point lead at the 16:40 mark. Northwood, however, dug in and battled back to trim the lead to just nine on an old-fashioned 3-point play by USC transfer Maurice Jones at the 10:03 mark.

The Knights answered with a 13-2 run over the next five minutes to re-extend their lead to 20 and close the door on the Timberwolves.

Northwood, which also was making its season debut, was led by Dylan Langkabel with 20 while Jones added 16.

Bellarmine now plays host Saginaw Valley tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. The Cardinals were 87-81 winners over St. Joseph's in the earlier game tonight.

BOX SCORE (HTM)