LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Capitalizing on a great 3-point shooting night, the No. 5/9 Bellarmine Knights defeated Southern Indiana 80-65 in front of a near-capacity crowd in Knights Hall in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game on Saturday night.

Bellarmine trailed only once at 1-0 as the outside shots starting falling early for the Knights.  The home team raced out an 18-point first half lead and went into the locker room leading 40-23 at the half.  The Knights drained nine of their 16 first half treys (56.3%) as six different players found the range from beyond the arc.

In the second period, the Knights cooled a bit, but finished the game 13 of 26 from the three point line, scoring more 3-point baskets than 2-pointers.   

Southern Indiana, ranked No. 15 in the National Media poll, did not go down without a fight.  After Bellarmine had extended its lead to 22 in the second half, the Screaming Eagles battled back to trim the deficit to just 10 on a Jeril Taylor trifecta at the 4:58 mark.

However, the Knights put it out of reach with a 5-0 spurt starting at the 2:26 mark.  Michael Parrish converted an old-fashioned 3-point play followed by a Jarek Coles steal and an Adam Eberhard layup to give the Knights a 76-61 cushion with just 1:30 remaining.

"I'm really proud," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport, who pointed out that his team had 38 deflections on the night. "What we'll learn from that," he said, "is that in the first half we had 27 (deflections) and they shot 32 percent. In the second, we had 11 and they shot 50 percent.  That's an objective measure of your defensive effort."

Of Bellarmine's offensive effort, Davenport said, he was impressed by the Knights' 25 baskets on 22 assists. "All in all," he said, "when you win three straight in this league, I'm ecstatic."

Bellarmine got a balanced scoring attack with five players reaching double figures, led by George Suggs with 17.  Junior Nick Fredrick and a particularly efficient game, pouring in a career high 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including a trey, while hitting three of four free throws in 14 minutes of action.

Junior Rusty Troutman contributed another solid effort with 15 points, five assists and three rebounds. Also reaching double figures were Yasin Kolo with 12 and Parrish with 11 to go along with five assists and four rebounds. Eberhard continued his efficient play, converting all three field goal attempts and both of his free throws for eight points while corralling four rebounds.

Defensively, the Knights held the Screaming Eagles to 41.4 percent shooting although USI came into the contest second in the GLVC in field goal percentage. However, Bellarmine couldn't slow down Taylor, a Pleasure Ridge Park High School graduate, who led all scorers with 27 points.

The Knights, ranked No. 5 in the National Media Poll and No. 9 in the NABC Coaches Poll, finished the game shooting 51 percent (25-49) and kept the Screaming Eagles at bay by hitting 17 of their 20 free throws.

Bellarmine improves to 14-2 on the season with a perfect 7-0 mark in the conference play.  Southern Indiana suffers its second loss in three games and slips to 13-4, 5-2 GLVC.

The Knights now embark on one of the toughest road trips in the GLVC with games at Wisconsin-Parkside and Lewis on Thursday and Saturday.

BOX SCORE (HTM)