LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The No. 3 Bellarmine Knights very well could have played both their best half of basketball and their worst half of basketball in tonight's 81-60 exhibition loss to the No. 13 Louisville Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center.
 
The Knights shot a meager 18.8 percent in the opening 20 minutes and scored just 17 points while coughing up 16 turnovers as Louisville ran out to a 49-17 halftime lead. The Cardinals hit nearly 53 percent of their field goals including going seven for 14 from beyond the 3-point arc.

"You have to give Louisville a lot of credit," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. "They made shots in the first half that are fairly well defended, but to give up five steals and 16 turnovers at halftime is just absolutely inexcusable. The turnovers were bad passing and bad timing, but give Louisville credit for speeding us up."

The second half, however, was a different story for the Knights. Bellarmine outscored the Cardinals 43-32 and burned the nets with 54.3 percent shooting, scoring 19 baskets on 14 assists.

Davenport said the key for the Knights in the second half was attacking. "When you don't attack a pressing basketball team, its defense has nothing to lose," Davenport explained. "They can gamble, shoot the gap, dive, and block shots because you're not attacking. When we starting attacking toward the latter part of the (first) half, it started to come around. Then we attacked the entire second half." 

Louisville, which led by as many as 37 in the first half, got balanced scoring with Donavan Mitchell and Deng Adel leading the way with 13 apiece. Jaylen Johnson did most of the Cardinals' board work, ripping down 11 rebounds.

Bellarmine got a surprising offensive lift from George Knott, whose career high is five points, but poured in a game-high 15 tonight. Sophomore Adam Eberhard continued a solid exhibition campaign by contributing 12 points for the Knights. Bellarmine's leading scorer and preseason All-American, Rusty Troutman, had an off shooting night, but hauled in nine rebounds to the lead the team.

"Our goal this week, going into today, was to leave with a boost going into Saginaw Valley (the Knights's opponent in their regular season opener on Friday)," said Davenport. "We have accomplished our goal because of our play in the second half." 

Despite scoring a moral victory, the second half featured a scary moment for the Knights when sophomore Daniel Ramser crumpled to the floor after taking an inadvertent elbow to the temple. The 6-5 guard out of Trinity showed movement in his extremities, but was was taken to the hospital for further examination as a precaution. (Courier-Journal report on Ramser)

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