LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Shaking off a sluggish start, the No. 13 Bellarmine Knights closed the first half on a 19-4 run to turn an eight point deficit into a 41-34 halftime advantage and went on to post an 81-71 victory over visiting Missouri-St. Louis Thursday night in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest in Knights Hall.

Rusty Troutman led five Knights in double figures with 22 points and added six rebounds and four assists and a steal to his stat line.  Senior guard Michael Parrish also turned in a solid game with 10 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Despite the double digit win, Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport was disappointed in his team's performance. ""We did not play team defense," he said. " We guarded one-on-one.  It was just five one-on-one games;  that's how we played it.  And we can't play it like that."

"This team is so capable, and that's why I was disappointed in them," Davenport added, " I know how good they can be, but it doesn't make a difference what I think. It has to be what they think."

Troutman echoed his coach's assessment of the game, but is optimistic the team will rebound in short order. "We just didn't play well," said the junior captain. "We will pick it up. We are a good team when we are all together. Everybody knows what it takes to win. Those last couple games, we defended pretty well.  We will get back on track."

"The Knights struggled on both ends of the court in the game's opening minutes with Bellarmine not getting on the scoreboard until nearly three minutes had elapsed. Then, defensive breakdowns led to the Tritons stretching out to a 16-8 lead. 

After Bellarmine reeled off seven straight points, UMSL spurted back to an eight-point bulge. Trailing 30-22 at the 4:57 mark, the Knights kicked up the defense and turned that into scoring opportunities.  Forcing five turnovers during the last five minutes of the first half, the Knights quickly erased the UMSL lead and led by seven at the break.

Coming out of halftime, Bellarmine's Yasin Kolo had the hot hand, and back to back jumpers by the big man gave the Knights their first double digit lead of the game just 1:11 into the second period.  However, the Knights couldn't get much separation as the Tritons kept within striking distance.  Bellarmine's biggest lead of the game was 14 and with just 1:26 remaining in the game.

Statistically speaking, the Knights had a pretty solid game, making 52.5 percent of their shots despite hitting just three of 13 from beyond the arc.  The also handed out 19 assists while committing a season-low five turnovers.

The Tritons, who got 15 points and 10 rebounds from Hunter Reine, were a plus-five on the backboards and outscored the Knights 15-7 in second chance points.  
Missouri-St. Louis falls to 10-13, 4-10 in conference play.

Bellarmine improved to 19-4 on the season with a 12-2 GLVC mark. The Knights stay atop the GLVC East Division standings. They are tied with Wisconsin-Parkside, who defeated Truman State in overtime on Thursday. Indianapolis, however, failed to keep pace falling to 11-3 in league play after losing at Rockhurst.

The Knights close out the home portion of their regular season schedule on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. against Maryville, who upset Southern Indiana on Thursday night.

Prior to the game on Saturday, Bellarmine will honor seniors George Suggs and Michael Parrish. "These two seniors stand for everything that is right about college basketball," said Davenport. "They went to one high school; they've gone to one college; they are great in the classroom, great in the locker room, and great in the community."

"I want Saturday to be special for them," Davenport added, "but it will only be special if we play a great contest against Maryville."

BOX SCORE (HTM)