Box Score LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The No. 6 Bellarmine University Knights made their Great Lakes Valley Conference debut a successful one by riding a strong first half to a 73-56 victory over the visiting Rockhurst Hawks Friday night in Knights Hall.

Sophomore forward Josh Derksen paced the Knights with a career high 20 points while senior Jake Thelen hauled in 12 rebounds to continue to lead the GLVC in that category.

After the Knights and Hawks battled back and forth for the first eight and a half minutes, Bellarmine reeled off 15 unanswered points to take a 28-12 lead on a Derksen trey at the 8:00 minute mark. The Knights would see the lead swell to as many as 20 and took a 41-23 lead into the locker room.

Bellarmine opened up a 25-point lead about midway through the second half, but Rockhurst battled back and actually outscored the Knights 33-32 in the second period.

"The first thing, this crowd on Friday night with no students was absolutely tremendous," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. "Secondly, the first half our ball movement and passing was tremendous; the second half it wasn't, and it showed. The first half we had 10 assists on 13 baskets. In the second half we only get four assists."

"Individually," Davenport said, "Rusty Troutman and George Suggs played tremendous basketball, but they came back from the break with great practices. Josh Derksen tonight played so much more like a Bellarmine player that he went to another level. He took a bad shot and he responded with a monster block on the other end."

"All in all to be 1-0 is great, but in the whole sum of things, I'm not too pleased," Davenport said.

The statistics bear out the 10^th year coach's misgivings. The Knights, who entered 10^th in the nation in field goal percentage, made a season low 38.9 percent tonight, and only Derksen and Suggs reached double digits. However, their defensive effort was solid, holding Rockhurst to just 32.3 percent from the field, and Bellarmine outrebounded the Hawks 46-38.

Derksen provided the bulk of Bellarmine's highlight reel tonight. In addition to the block Davenport referred to, the 6-9 Australian threw down an alley oop dunk off a feed from Suggs, and he made three of eight triples.

Troutman struggled through a tough offensive night, but came up with seven rebounds and dished out four assists while converting six of eight free throws for a half a dozen points. Senior Chris Whitehead contributed nine points and a game-high five assists while Suggs stuffed the stats sheet with four blocks, 10 points and six rebounds.

Rockhurst was led by center Dominque Washington with 13 points.

Bellarmine improves to 9-1 on the season with a 1-0 GLVC mark while the Hawks fall to 4-6, 0-2 in GLVC play.

The Knights return to action on Sunday afternoon when the William Jewell Cardinals visit for a 3:15 game. The Cardinals fell 86-48 to Southern Indiana on Friday evening.

BOX SCORE