LOUISVILLE, Ky.—As the buzzer sounded, Quincy's Herm Senor's desperation heave from near the midcourt stripe was airborne, and it wasn't until it clanged off the back iron that the No. 5/9 Bellarmine Knights could celebrate their 81-79 victory in a hard fought Great Lakes Valley Conference game in Knights Hall.

Coming down the stretch, both teams both capitalized and squandered opportunities. After leading for nearly the entire second period, Bellarmine found themselves having to play catch up in the last minute of the game.

Quincy's Godson Eneogwe heated up from 3-point range and when his fifth triple of the game went through with 1:41 on the clock, the Bellarmine lead had been erased and the score was tied 77-77. Following a Bellarmine turnover, Joseph Tagarelli scored the Hawks' 14th second chance point when he put back his own miss with exactly one minute remaining to give Quincy its first lead since early in the second half.

Bellarmine had the answer in George Suggs, last year's GLVC leader in 3-point percentage. The 6-10 senior canned a go-ahead trifecta to give the Knights a 80-79 lead with 49 seconds showing on the clock.

On Quincy's ensuing possession, Suggs picked up a charge against Evan McGaughey, but the Knights returned the favor with less 10 seconds on the clock.  Bellarmine then fouled Eneogwe as he drove down the lane, sending the 6-6 senior to the free throw line for a one-and-one with six seconds remaining.

Despite being hot from the outside, Eneogwe was too strong on his first free throw attempt and Rusty Troutman corralled his 10^th rebound of the game and shuffled the ball to Michael Parrish, who was fouled immediately with three seconds on the clock.

Parrish knocked down the first, but misfired on the second, McGaughey grabbed the rebound and passed ahead to Senor who launched the final attempt.

"It's the two division leaders playing," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. "How could anybody be surprised?  We have tremendous respect for them.  They just won 11 of their last 12.  They aren't going to quit ever, not in this league."

The win, Bellarmine's 10^th in a row, was a nice birthday gift to the Bellarmine coach, who celebrated his 60^th birthday, today.

Rusty Troutman, again, turned in an outstanding performance, pouring in a game-high 23 points and hauling in a game-high 10 rebounds. Parrish was all over the floor for Bellarmine tonight, collecting 11 points, a career-high eight assists and five rebounds. 

"All you need to know about Mike Parrish," said Davenport, "is that we had 33 deflections as a team, and he had 14.  That's an objective measure of effort. 

Suggs also turned in a solid performance for the Knights with a season high 19 points and six rebounds with three assists and two blocked shots.

Also hitting double digits was Yasin Kolo with 10 points.

Eneogwe, who battled foul trouble for much of the second half, paced the Hawks with 19 points while McGaughey and Von Washington tallied seven rebounds apiece and Senor dished out nine assists.

Bellarmine made 52.9 percent of its shots, but was just 7-of-18 from 3-point range. The Knights won the battle of the boards 39-36, but the Hawks outbattled the Knights on the offensive glass 15-8.

Quincy made just 41.7 percent of their field goals, but the Hawks lauched 35 threes on the night, connected on 14 of them to outscore Bellarmine 42-21 from beyond the arc.

The Knights improve to 13-2 on the season and remain a perfect  6-0 in GLVC play. Quincy slips to 11-5, 5-2 GLVC.

Bellarmine now has a quick turnaround, as they'll play their third game in five days when they host Southern Indiana on Monday at 8 p.m.
 
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