LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The No. 3 Bellarmine Knights raced out to an early 10-2 lead and never looked back as they cruised to a 76-40 Great Lakes Valley Conference win over Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday night in Knights Hall.
 
The Rangers closed to within 21-16 about midway through the first half, but Bellarmine blitzed the visitors with a 10-0 run over the next 1:52. The Knights got three steals leading to three fast break layups over that span as Bellarmine essentially put the game out of reach.
 
After expanding the lead to 45-24 at halftime, the Knights allowed just 16 second half points to post the 36-point victory.
 
"We start final exams tomorrow, so it's been a tough week," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.  "We had two big defensive goals tonight and that was to hold them under 40 percent shooting, and we held them to 30, and under 30 (percent) from the 3-point line, and they shot 27. So we met those goals."
 
The Knights got a big lift tonight from freshman CJ Fleming, who came off the bench to post a perfect shooting night, going 5-for-5 from the field including four 3-pointers.  The Cincinnati native led all scorers with 14 and logged the most minutes for BU with 22.
 
Thirteen players saw action for Bellarmine tonight with 11 hitting the scoring column.
 
Sophomore Caleb Taylor had a particularly eventful nine minutes of action, recording 10 points with three blocked shots and two rebounds. Fellow sophomore Ben Weyer also tallied 10 points for the Knights.
 
Junior Adam Eberhard just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds in just 21 minutes of action.
 
Wisconsin-Parkside, which fell to 1-7, 0-2 GLVC, was paced by Adam Bonk's 13 points.  
 
Statistically, Bellarmine owned advantages in virtually every phase of the game. The Knights outshot the Rangers 50.8 percent to 30 percent, outrebounded the visitors 36-23, and tallied 12 more assists while committing eight fewer turnovers.
 
The victory was the 47th consecutive home win for Bellarmine, which ranks as the longest current streak of any NCAA school. The Knights improve to 8-0 on the season and 2-0 in league play.
 
The Knights return to action on Saturday when they host in-state rival Midway in 7:30 p.m. game.
 
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