EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The Bellarmine University women's basketball team sure has been in a festive mood befitting the start of the holiday season.
On Sunday in their final game of the USI Thanksgiving Classic at the Physical Activities Center, the Knights erased an 11-point first-half deficit and had four players score in double figures in an 82-64 victory over Harris-Stowe.
Contributions came from a bevy of sources for Bellarmine (4-1), which ran off its fourth straight win after falling in its season debut. Senior forward
Morgan Clemons posted a double-double with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, and junior guard
Mariah Gador notched a team-high 17 points with seven rebounds. In addition, freshman guard
Raven Merriweather tallied 16 points, four rebounds and three steals, sophomore guard
Kelsey Adwell chipped in 10 points and sophomore guard
Destony Curry racked up six steals along with eight points and a game-high four assists.
Shanique Buford was a force for Harris-Stowe (0-5), pumping in a game-high 29 points behind 10-of-13 shooting. She also hauled in 10 rebounds, while Alexis Minner added 14 points. However, outside of Buford and Minner, the rest of the Hornets only produced 21 points, a stark contrast to the balance that Bellarmine exhibited.
The Knights dominated in a few key areas. They racked up 16 assists while the Hornets only had four. Led by Merriweather and Adwell, BU outscored Harris-Stowe in bench points, 33-12. The Knights also owned a 28-12 advantage in points in the paint in the second half and a 46-36 edge overall while shooting 49.2 percent for the game and holding the Hornets to 41.5 percent. Harris-Stowe didn't hit a single 3-pointer, going 0 for 8 from deep.
Bellarmine has been prone this season to falling behind by large margins in first halves and Sunday was no different. Despite being winless thus far, Harris-Stowe came out strong and built a 28-17 lead with 5:44 left in the first half. The Knights, perhaps a bit sluggish after Saturday's big 63-58 victory over Newberry, which was tied for 11th in the latest D2SIDA National Poll rankings, got untracked with a 20-6 run leading into halftime.
Clemons started the comeback with a basket off a feed from Curry and sank a free throw for a 33-32 lead with 1:30 left in the half. A bucket and a pair of free throws by Merriweather gave BU a 37-34 advantage at the intermission.
Harris-Stowe tied the game at 37 just 11 seconds into the second half, but Bellarmine took control from there. An Adwell jumper and a Merriweather layup boosted BU's advantage to 10 with 13:13 left, and the Knights poured it on thereafter, never leading by less than eight and pushing their edge to 21 on a Gador bucket.
Bellarmine is off until Dec. 13, when the Knights host Trevecca Nazarene at 1 p.m. (ET) at Knights Hall. BU defeated Trevecca Nazarene, 72-60, on the road on Tuesday.
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