LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University women's basketball team suffered a 64-48 loss to Southern Indiana in its regular-season finale on Thursday at Knights Hall in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
The Knights (14-12, 9-9 GLVC) were hoping to earn a first-round home game in the GLVC Tournament. However, after the Screaming Eagles (23-5, 15-3) won for the ninth time in a row, BU will play at Missouri-St. Louis at 2 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. The Tritons are the eighth seed while the Knights are No. 9. USI earned a first-round bye.
Sophomore guard
Destony Curry led the Knights with 13 points, freshman guard
Raven Merriweather added 12 and freshman forward
Beth Bowers chipped in seven with eight rebounds. In her final game in Knights Hall, senior forward
Morgan Clemons ripped down eight rebounds as well.
Tanner Marcum paced Southern Indiana with a game-high 16 points, while Anna Hackert collected a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Hackert is a five-time GLVC Player of the Week honoree this season but was limited to 22 minutes due to foul trouble. She still managed to become USI's all-time leader in career rebounds.
Bellarmine owned a 25-24 lead at halftime, but USI outscored the Knights 40-23 in the second half. The Screaming Eagles only made three more field goals than the Knights for the game, but USI connected on 15-of-20 free throws while BU only shot four times from the charity stripe, making all of them.
Bellarmine trailed by 10 in the first half but junior forward
Nicole Bryant knocked down a 3-pointer to spark an 8-0 run that kept things close until junior guard
Mariah Gador spotted sophomore guard
Whitney Hartlage for the go-ahead basket with 15 seconds left.
Hackert gave Southern Indiana the lead 21 seconds into the second half, and the Screaming Eagles took control with an 11-0 run. The Knights stayed within five on a 3-pointer by Merriweather with 8:21 left, but USI responded with a 14-4 burst to put the game out of reach as BU never got closer than 10 the rest of the way.
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