EVANSVILLE, Ind. — One by one, members of the fourth-ranked Bellarmine University men's basketball team filed up a stairway at the Ford Center, exchanging hugs and high-fives with their supportive and appreciative contingent of fans.
It is March. And for these Knights, it was title time.
Bookending the second half with stellar play, top-seeded Bellarmine secured its first Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament championship since 2011 Sunday afternoon with a 74-61 victory over seventh-seeded and defending tournament champion Lewis.
The GLVC Tournament title was the third for Bellarmine (28-3), which also captured the crown in 2010 and 2011. It comes on the heels of the Knights earning an outright GLVC East title, the third-straight year Bellarmine has won at least a share of the division.
Adam Eberhard received tournament MVP honors. In the title game, the sophomore forward posted his second-consecutive double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four assists. Senior guard
Rusty Troutman joined Eberhard on the All-Tournament team, piling up a game-high 23 points with four assists against the Flyers (19-13). Senior guard
Al Davis chipped in 15 points, three assists, three steals and perhaps the defensive play of the season thus far as the Knights won their 15th-straight game.
Bellarmine clung to a 34-33 lead against the hot-shooting Flyers at halftime, but the Knights asserted themselves after the intermission and led by 14 on an Eberhard 3-pointer a little over six minutes into the half. Capel Henshaw responded with a pair of 3-pointers for Lewis, and the Flyers hit a string of highly contested shots by the Knights to pull within 62-61 with 3:20 left.
Eberhard, in perhaps his MVP-defining play, converted a difficult drive while being fouled and he sank the ensuing free throw. He followed by swiping a Flyers pass and sinking a pair more from the charity stripe. After a pair of defensive stops, Troutman delivered the clincher, taking a feed from Davis in the right corner and burying a 3-pointer. Troutman and Davis both nailed a pair of free throws as the Knights finished the game on a 12-0 run.
"We've practiced since October with the mentality in those types of situations that you defend to win," Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport said. "What we stress is it's always in front of the other team's bench, so you don't have the luxury of your teammates and coaches yelling out. You have each other."
Cristen Wilson scored 21 points and Delaney Blaylock added 14 for Lewis. The Flyers shot a sizzling 56 percent in the first half and went 4 for 7 (57.1 percent) from 3-point land. Twice they built leads of 11 points.
"I'm going to give Lewis credit. Those kids played their socks off," Davenport said. "I mean they made some incredibly difficult, challenged shots. But they shot 56 percent in the first half, they had outrebounded us and they were down a point. So, I think our players had a sense of great poise."
Bellarmine's defense had much greater success in the second half, when the Knights limited the Flyers to 34.5 percent shooting, including 23.1 percent (3 for 13) from deep. Bellarmine had a commanding 27-11 advantage in points off turnovers, even though there wasn't a big difference in them — the Flyers had 14 to the Knights' 11. With about seven minutes left, Davis made an indelible play on defense as he created a steal, diving head first on the floor to corral the ball and call timeout just before it rolled over the sideline. The heady sequence personified why Davis was named GLVC Defensive Player of the Year.
"As a teacher, the things we've stressed and taught, we saw them applied during the game," Davenport said. "I thought our defense creating offense in the second half was the key to the game. We got out in transition where we weren't going against their set defense. But defense won this game, without a doubt."
With his 23 points, Troutman continued his climb up the program's all-time scoring list. He's now in eighth place behind fellow All-American Braydon Hobbs.
The DII NCAA Tournament field will be announced tonight. Bellarmine was ranked No. 1 in all three Midwest Region polls leading into the postseason and is expected to be awarded host of the NCAA Midwest Regional.
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