Box Score LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine University men's basketball team rolled to a big first half lead and coasted home for a 73-53 homecoming victory over Illinois-Springfield in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest at Knights Hall on Saturday afternoon.
 
Bellarmine made seven of 19 first half threes and turned the ball over just two times to go into the locker room with a 42-18 lead.  In the second period, the Knights saw their cushion swell to as many as 29 before the visiting Prairie Stars made a bit of a comeback to trim the final margin to 20 as the Knights utilized every available player.
 
Seniors Keisten Jones and Vance Hall tied for game-high honors with 16 points apiece, and freshman Rusty Troutman added 14 with 4-of-8 three point shooting.  Wes Koral came off the bench to lead UIS with 15 points.
 
"When you break down this game, the difference is really the 3-point shooting in the first half, other than that it's a dead even game," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. "What was good about tonight is that we're in February, and we were really able to manage minutes.  We had 10 guys play between 10 and 26 minutes.  We're going on the road this week, and these are huge basketball games."
 
Despite the large margin of victory, the Knights had an off shooting night for their high standards.  Coming to the game, Bellarmine was fourth in the nation, making 53 percent from the field, but managed just 42.6 percent against UIS.  The Knights did a solid job of controlling the ball, committing just eight turnovers while forcing the Prairie Stars into 14 miscues.

Bellarmine improves to 15-4 on the season with a 7-4 GLVC mark. The Prairie Stars fall to 6-13, 2-9 GLVC. 

The Knights hit the road this week for games at Quincy on Thursday and at Truman State (Kirksville, Mo.) on Saturday.  

BOX SCORE (HTM)