LEBANON, Ill.—With a solid game at both ends of the floor, the No. 11 Bellarmine Knights cruised to a 95-65 Great Lakes Valley Conference road win over McKendree University on Thursday night at the Statham Center.

The Knights were efficient on offense and stingy on defense, making 57.6 percent of their shots while holding the Bearcats to just 36.6 percent from the field.

With a solid team effort, the Knights got contributions from up and down the roster as five players scored in double figures, led by Nick Fredrick's career high of 14 points.  

"It was a great team game," said Bellarmine sophomore Jarek Coles in his postgame radio interview. "We all played together. We came in with the mentality that anybody can be beat, and we had to play hard. It's the end of the season, and it's time for everyone to come together."

Coach Scott Davenport echoed those sentiments. "This was a very, very solid performance," Davenport said.  "We had 47 deflections, and we hit every goal we had except offensive rebounds."

The Knights held McKendree's David Franklin and Nate Michael to a combined 22 points on 9-of-29 shooting.  The Bearcat duo had averaged 59 points a game over the previous three games.  

Davenport said the credit could not be singled out to any individuals.  "It was great preparation and great team defense," he said.

Bellarmine bolted out to a quick 10-0 lead, converting their first four shots, which included triples by Rusty Troutman and George Suggs. 

McKendree Coach Harry Statham, whose 1,100 career victories are the most by a coach at a 4-year college, called a quick timeout to settle his troops. 

Although the Bearcats rallied to trim the deficit to just two points, the Knights never surrendered the lead and closed the half on a 17-4 run to take a 47-32 lead into the locker room. Suggs put an exclamation point on the half by burying a three as time expired.

After the break, Bellarmine simply picked up where it left off, establishing a 25-point advantage less than four and a half minutes into the second half. The bulge grew to as many as 33 before the Knights settled for the 30-point victory.

Suggs, Troutman and Al Davis each contributed 13 points for the Knights, and Yasin Kolo added 11 as Davenport had the luxury of resting most of his starters in the second half.  Eleven of the 12 Knights who saw action hit the scoring column, and all 12 hauled in at least one rebound.

Perhaps Bellarmine's most impressive statistic was limiting turnovers to just six after committing four in the first 12 minutes.  For the game, Bellarmine boasted an assist to turnover ratio of 3.16 to one after dishing out 19 assists on their 38 made baskets.

The Knights won the rebounding battle 41-34 despite 16 offensive boards by the Bearcats.

Bellarmine improves to 21-4 on the season and continues to lead the GLVC East Division with a 14-2 mark.  McKendree falls to an even 12-12 for the year and 5-11 in conference play.

The Knights continue their road trip with a Saturday afternoon game at Illinois-Springfield, who defeated Southern Indiana 86-81 on Thursday.  Tip is scheduled for 4 p.m. (ET).

BOX SCORE (HTM)