ST. LOUIS—The No. 5 Bellarmine Knights cruised past the host Missouri-St. Louis Tritons 78-56 as the visitors played well on both ends of the floor in today's Great Lakes Valley Conference game at the Mark Twain Building.
 
Converting 33 of their 56 field goal attempts, the Knights followed their worst shooting performance of the year in Thursday's loss at Indianapolis with their best by drilling 58.9 percent of their shots today.  Defensively, Bellarmine notched its season high with 12 steals as they forced 20 Triton turnovers.
 
Individually, Alex Cook posted his best game as a Knight, netting a career-high 17 points while not missing a shot.  The sophomore from Louisville was 7-for-7 from the field, including two from beyond the arc, and knocked down his only free throw.
 
Bellarmine senior Brent Bach tied Cook for team-high honors with 17, scoring 14 in the second period.  Defensively, Jarek Coles came up with a career-high five steals to lead the Knights' defensive effort.
 
"The second half—on both ends of the court—for 20 minutes we played really, really good basketball," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport. "Our goal at halftime was to hold them under 40 percent shooting; they shot 37.  They make six out of 10 threes in the first half…and they shoot 18 percent (in the second half)."
 
"Alex Cook played tremendous today," Davenport added. "He played with great purpose, and his concentration level was good.  I'm really proud of Jarek Coles," Davenport continued. "He kind of got off to a tough start and really beat himself up, and then he played as rock solid as you could play."
 
Again today, Bellarmine got off to a quick start only to see the opponent fight back.  After jumping out to an 11-6 lead, the Tritons buried back-to-back 3-pointers to grab a 12-11 advantage. 
 
Another triple gave UMSL its biggest lead of the game at 19-16 a few minutes later, but after Chivarsky Corbett's bucket gave the advantage back to the Knights at 20-19, Bellarmine never trailed again.
 
The Knights closed the first period on a 24-11 run to take a 40-30 cushion into halftime.
 
After the break, Bach once again showed his ability to score in bunches.  The Augusta, Kentucky native poured in nine of BU's 11 points over the first 3:37 of the second half to stake the Knights to a 51-34 advantage. The Tritons could get no closer than 15 the rest of the way.
 
Joining Cook and Bach in double figures for the Knights were Adam Eberhard, who contributed 13 points, six assists and five rebounds and Corbett, who added 10 points and five boards despite not playing the second half due to an illness.
 
Johnathan Matthews came off the bench to score a game high 18 points for Missouri-St. Louis, which fell to 9-10 (4-6 GLVC).
 
Bellarmine improved to 18-2 (9-2 GLVC) on the season.  The Knights return to action on Thursday, hosting Quincy in an 8 p.m. game at Knights Hall.
 
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