LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The No. 15 Bellarmine Knights men's basketball team rolled to its 36th consecutive home win on Saturday afternoon by knocking off Great Lakes Valley Conference rival Wisconsin-Parkside 82-62 in a battle of top 25 teams.
 
The Rangers, ranked No. 22 in the NABC poll and No. 12 in the National Media Poll, claimed an early 4-0 to open the game, but the Knights roared back with a 10-0 run and never trailed again as Bellarmine torched the nets with 56 percent shooting for game, including going 11 of 19 from long range (57.9%).
 
Freshman Ben Weyer was particularly hot from the outside for the Knights, draining five of his six treys for a career-high 15 points.
 
Once again, Bellarmine featured a balanced scoring attack with Rusty Troutman adding 15, Adam Eberhard chipping in 14 and Brent Bach coming off the bench with 13. In all, the Bellarmine bench outscored the UWP reserves 44-9.  
 
"I know this sounds redundant," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport, "but this is a tremendous program win. That's the only way I know how to teach the game so it is redundant. My only complaint tonight was the 16 turnovers. We gave up 24 points off turnovers, but we scored 18 points off turnovers, so our hustle on defense erased some of our mistakes. When I break this tape down, the percentage of points they get off our set defense versus in transition will be incredible."
 
Wisconsin-Parkside (15-3, 7-2 GLVC) entered play as the sixth best shooting team in the country, making 51.5 percent of its shots, but the Knights held them to just 46.2 percent today. From the 3-point line, the Rangers ranked fifth in the nation at 42.6 percent, but managed just 37.5 percent (6-16) against the Knights. 
 
The Knights also controlled the backboards with a 31-21 rebounding advantage. Senior guard Al Davis, who stands just 5-9, ran down eight rebounds to tie Eberhard for game-high honors.
 
With the win, Bellarmine maintains a share of the lead in the GLVC East with Southern Indiana, who turned back Lewis today to move to 8-1 in league play. The Rangers slip into a tie for third with the University of Indianapolis at 7-2.
 
The Greyhounds—Bellarmine's next opponent—has won seven in a row and own the GLVC's longest current winning streak, having not lost in calendar year 2017.
 
Davenport said the Bellarmine will have its hands full when they travel to Indianapolis on Thursday. "They have a lot of new parts this year, but they're playing very good basketball right now. So it will be a great test," he said.
 
The Knights follow Thursday's game with a matchup at Saint Joseph's on Saturday.

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