Box Score LOUISVILLE, Ky.-Fans at Knights Hall were treated to a thriller as the second-ranked Bellarmine University Knights hosted the No. 3 Florida Southern College Moccasins on Saturday night in the final game of the Bellarmine Classic presented by Best Western. The game lived up to the billing with FSC pulling out an exciting 101-96 overtime victory over the host Knights.

The Mocs trailed the majority of the game but finally caught and surpassed the Knights in the final four minutes of regulation. Bellarmine's Rusty Troutman drained a pair of free throws with seven second remaining to force overtime.

In the extra session, the teams battled back and forth until Stephen Battle's old-fashioned 3-point play at the 2-minute mark put Florida Southern ahead to stay. The Knights thought they had tied it on their ensuing possession, but Chris Whitehead's jumper from the left wing was ruled a 2-pointer. Officials went to the monitor, but ruled there wasn't enough video evidence to overturn the call.

The Knights got a stop on defense, but misfired on their final two attempts from the field while Florida Southern made all four of their free throws in the final 22 seconds to pull out the victory.

Bellarmine's Jake Thelen had another stellar performance with a career high 29 points and 15 rebounds-both game highs. Florida Southern's Kevin Capers, who entered as the nation's eighth-leading scorer-led the visitors with 25 points, including going 13 of 14 from the charity stripe.

"You can't let winning and losing affect your attitude toward your team," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. "I don't feel one bit different about my team. This was two teams that are capable of winning a national championship."

The Knights led the entire opening period, and went into the locker room with a 39-34 lead as Josh Sewell swished a 15 foot jumper as time expired. The Mocs opened the second period with a 7-0 run to take a brief 41-39 lead, but the Knights rebounded to score the game's next seven points, and maintained a lead until the final four minutes of regulation.

In a game with 61 fouls called, foul trouble was a serious factor with three Knights and one FSC player fouling out. The foul calls also led to another major factor in the game: free throw shooting. The Moccasins made four more free throw than Bellarmine attempted as FSC went 38-45 from the line while the Knights connected on 24 of 34.

Bellarmine continued its solid shooting connecting on 54.1 percent from the field while holding Florida Southern to just 37.5 percent. The Knights achilles heel was turnovers, where the Mocs forced BU into a season high 23 miscues. Florida Southern enjoyed a plus-six turnover margin and won the battle of the backboards 43-40, allowing the visitors 11 more field goal attempts than the Knights.

Individually, several Knights posted solid numbers. Joining Thelen with a double-double was Whitehead with 17 points and a Bellarmine career-high 12 assists. Five different Knights scored in double digits with Troutman (18), Sewell (13) and Josh Derksen (10) joining Thelen and Whitehead.

The loss was Bellarmine's first of the season and drops the Knights to 7-1 overall while Florida Southern remains unbeaten at 8-0.

The Knights return to action in one week, hosting Fairmont State in 3 p.m. game on Dec. 20.

BOX SCORE(HTM)