ST. LOUIS — Veteran Coach Scott Davenport rarely encounters unique situations on a basketball court anymore, but the Bellarmine University men's basketball coach experienced one on Saturday after the No. 7 Knights' 73-56 romp over Missouri-St. Louis.

Following Bellarmine's ninth consecutive win in Great Lakes Valley Conference action, Davenport was headed to the locker room when he was chased down by Tritons sharpshooter Max Cook.

"He stopped me after the handshake when I was leaving to go down to the hallway and told me, 'Coach, you play the game the way it should be played,' " Davenport said. "I've never had that happen before. I really appreciated that."

It was the ultimate compliment — and an accurate assessment of Bellarmine's performance in the Mark Twain Building. The Knights (22-3, 14-1 GLVC) weren't thrilled with their second half, but that essentially was an afterthought after they dominated the first half against UMSL (10-15, 4-11) in building a 41-21 lead that allowed them to cruise to victory in the second half.

Bellarmine's first 20 minutes were some of its best of the season. The Knights shot a shrewd 61.5 percent from the floor and canned seven 3-pointers. They were equally efficient on defense, bottling up the Tritons and yielding only 34.6 percent shooting. The result was a stout 20-point lead at the intermission.

"We were just very, very solid and disciplined," Davenport said of the first-half play.

Bellarmine was highly balanced in the scoring column as only Al Davis registered double figures with a game-high 17 points. The senior guard also had four steals and three assists. Senior guard Rusty Troutman had nine points and three assists, freshman forward Ben Weyer stroked a trio of 3-pointers for nine points and junior guard Tyler Jenkins added eight points and six rebounds. Strong contributions also came from junior guard Jarek Coles (game-best six assists), sophomore forward Adam Eberhard (six rebounds, five assists, two steals), freshman forward Alex Cook (eight rebounds) and senior forward George Knott, who scored seven early points to help get the Knights revving.

Bellarmine never trailed in the game. It was relatively close in the first half until the Knights unleashed a 20-6 run leading into the intermission. Davis capped the explosion with a 3-pointer. He had one earlier in the run as did junior guard Brent Bach.

Jenkins capped a 7-0 run to start the second half with a steal and layup as Bellarmine pushed the lead to 27. The Knights went a little cold after that but still shot 50 percent for the game, including 10 of 22 from 3-point range. Bellarmine held UMSL to 38.2 percent shooting.

"The second half just had no flow to it whatsoever," Davenport said. "The great thing was Al played 32 minutes, but nobody else needed to play more than 27."

Bellarmine, the GLVC East leader, will finish the regular season with three games at home. The Knights begin the stretch Thursday against McKendree and Saturday against Illinois Springfield.

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