LOUISVILLE, Ky.—With a nickname like Miners, it's fitting that the Missouri S&T basketball team came into Knights Hall and turned in a workmanlike effort against the eighth-ranked Bellarmine Knights. However, the effort fell short as Bellarmine battled to an 80-59 victory in Saturday afternoon's Great Lakes Valley Conference game.
Adam Eberhard posted his fifth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds to help lead the Knights to their 38th consecutive home win. The triumph pushed the Bellarmine record to 20-3 (12-1 GLVC), marking the ninth straight 20-win season for the Knights.
"S&T is a very, very improved basketball team," said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. "They played incredibly hard. We matched that and were able to hold them to their second lowest point total of the year, and we held them six percentage points under what they shoot. So all in all it was a great performance."
The Miners (9-11, 3-10 GLVC) scored the first basket of the game, but the 2-0 lead would be short-lived and the only time Missouri S&T would be ahead in the game. Bellarmine's
Rusty Troutman answered the Miners' bucket with a triple from just right of the top of the key, and the Knights took their first lead of the game, 3-2.
Missouri S&T came back to tie it on a couple of different occasions in the first half, but after the Miners' Jalen Myers nailed a three to knot the score 12-12 at the 13:47 mark, the Knights unleashed a quick 10-0 run to take control of the game.
Bellarmine went into halftime leading 35-25, but Missouri S&T got within six just 2:13 in the second period. The Knights didn't let the Miners get any closer, but Bellarmine didn't put the game out of reach until the final five minutes with the largest margin of 24 coming after
Brent Bach drained a three with 16 seconds remaining.
Statistically, the Knights dominated. Bellarmine shot 57.4 percent while holding S&T to just to 36.4 percent, and outrebounded the Miners 37-24. Of particular importance for the Knights was giving up just seven offensive rebounds to S&T as the Miners came in the top offensive rebounding team in the GLVC.
Individually, the Knights put four players in double figures with
Tyler Jenkins (12),
Brent Bach (11) and
Rusty Troutman (10) joining Ebehard in that category. Only two Miners managed to top 10 points with Randy Holmes and Telloy Simon scoring 11 apiece.
Bellarmine remains atop the GLVC East standings with Southern Indiana just one game back at 11-2 in the league. In the West, Quincy (10-3 GLVC) owns a one game lead over Truman State.
Next up for the Knights is their final regular season road trip with games at Maryville (8-17, 2-11 GLVC) on Thursday and Missouri-St. Louis (10-13, 4-9 GLVC) on Saturday.
For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights), Facebook (BUKnights) and the BUKnights mobile app available for iPhone and Android.
BOX SCORE (HTM)
