MIDLAND, Mich.—The No. 3 Bellarmine Knights raced to an 85-70 victory over the host Northwood Timberwolves Saturday night in the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge at Riepma Arena.
Despite never trailing in the entire game, the Knights could never fully relax, either. Northwood kept things interesting by drilling 14 of 28 three pointers.
Ultimately, the Knights were able to hold the Timberwolves at bay with sharp shooting and ball control. The Knights scorched the nets with 55.6 percent shooting while committing just seven turnovers in the game.
"This game was a perfect example of how we have to play," said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. "We shoot 56 percent from the field on 18 assists, and we didn't have a turnover the last 17 minutes of the game."
Sophomore forward
Adam Eberhard stepped up on both ends of the court for the Knights, pouring in a career-high 22 points while drawing a tough defensive assignment by guarding Northwood center Matt Crowl.
Offensively, Bellarmine got a balanced attack with four players scoring in double figures.
Rusty Troutman added 15 points despite having to spend an extended period of time on the bench after picking up his fourth foul at the 16:42 mark of the second half.
Freshman
Alex Cook, meanwhile, was highly productive in his 16 minutes of action for the Knights. The 6-6 guard out of Louisville Male connected on five of six shots—including both of his treys and a highlight reel dunk—while going 2-for2 from the free throw line for 14 points.
Senior point guard
Al Davis also had an impressive stat line with 10 points, six assists and four steals.
About six minutes into the game, the Knights started clicking on all cylinders and opened up an 18-point lead thanks to 71 percent first half shooting. However, Northwood went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc in the final three minutes to trim the margin to just 10 (51-41) at halftime. Kyle Godrey put an exclamation point on the Northwood closing run by drilling a shot from midcourt as time expired.
Northwood's momentum carried into the first minute of the second period as the Knights got the opening possession and immediately turned the ball over. The Timberwolves capitalized by connecting on yet another 3-pointer.
Luckily for the Knights, Northwood's 3-point shooting cooled and buckets by Davis and Troutman upped the margin back to double digits.
Although the Timberwolves fought back to close the gap to just five on two occasions, Bellarmine always had an answer and extended the lead to as many as 19 in the final minute.
Nick Spitzley led Northwood with 19 points while Godfrey had a hot shooting night, making four of five 3-pointers and all four of his free throws for 16 points.
The Timberwolves, who were just seven of 18 from inside the arc, scored just eight points in the paint and finished the night shooting 45.7 percent from the field.
Northwood (0-2) won the battle of the backboards 29-22, but Bellarmine owned a 7-4 advantage in second chance points.
Bellarmine (1-1) continues their challenging schedule with two games at the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Evansville this coming weekend. On Friday, they'll face the fifth-ranked Alabama-Huntsville Chargers at 4:30 p.m. (EST) and then come back the following day with a 7 p.m. contest against Florida Southern.
The Hall of Fame Classic will be played at the Ford Center and features tripleheaders both days. Friday's lineup opens with the BU-UAH game followed by Kentucky Wesleyan playing Lincoln Memorial at 7 p.m. (EST) and Southern Indiana taking on Florida Southern at 9:30 p.m. On Saturday, Lincoln Memorial and Alabama Huntsville have the first game at 4:30 p.m. (EST), then BU and Florida Southern take the floor in a rematch of the 2015 final four game with USI and Kentucky Wesleyan playing in the final game.
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