INDIANAPOLIS—The third-ranked Bellarmine Knights moved to 2-0 on the season by holding off the upset-minded Northwood Timberwolves 80-70 on day two of the GLIAC-GLVC Challenge in Nicoson Hall on the campus of the University of Indianapolis.
The Knights fired on all cylinders in the first half in building a 23-point lead, but the Timberwolves—who upset the host Greyhounds last night—heated up in the second half to make a game of it. Nothwood nailed nearly 58 percent of its second half shots while Bellarmine hit just 40 percent as the T-wolves closed to within eight with 9:07 remaining.
Just as they did yesterday, however, the Knights iced the game with solid free throw shooting. Despite making just four of their first 10 charity tosses, the Bellarmine players combined to go 12-for-12 from the line over the final 7:43.
Meanwhile, Northwood missed the front end of the bonus on back-to-back trips, and the Knights surged back ahead by 17 when
Adam Eberhard converted a layup at the 2:30 mark. The Timberwolves scored the game's final seven points to make the final margin 10.
"To be 2-0 with two in-region wins on the road, I'm elated." said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. "That was five games in 11 days," he said, referring to BU's three exhibition games on Nov. 1, 4, and 7 and the opener yesterday. "I don't think I could have made it tougher than that, but they (the BU team) responded."
In the opening half, the Knights reeled off 20 minutes of nearly flawless basketball. Bellarmine hit 18 of 28 shots (64.3 percent) including five of seven three pointers while holding Northwood to just 30.3 percent shooting.
Brent Bach led the way in the first half for the Knights, scoring 15 of his career-high 17 points before halftime on 6-of-8 shooting while making all three of his treys.
For the game, Eberhard paced four Bellarmine double-digit scorers with 19 points. The All-American from Evansville, Indiana delivered another virtuoso-like performance, making all six of his shots from the floor and hauling in three rebounds and dishing out a pair of assists while playing on an injured ankle.
"I have to give a big shout out to Adam," Davenport said. "He played really banged up, and he really fought through it."
In addition to Eberhard and Bach, other top performers for the Knights included
Chivarsky Corbett with 11 points and four rebounds and
Parker Chitty with 13 points, three rebounds and two assists.
Ben Weyer hauled in seven rebounds to lead Bellarmine while
Jarek Coles was the high assist man with four.
Alec Marty of Northwood scored a game-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting before leaving the game with an injury with about seven and a half minutes remaining. Nick Spitzley added 12 points for the Timberwolves, and Bruno Solomun claimed 11 rebounds.
The Knights ended the game outshooting Northwood 52.8 percent to 42.4 percent and managed a one-rebound advantage 33-32.
Bellarmine now returns to Knights Hall to make its regular season home debut on Wednesday, Nov. 15 in a 7 p.m. game against Indiana University Southeast.
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