LOUISVILLE, KY.—When a coach is pleased after an exhibition game, it means things went his team's way.
 
So when Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport leads off his postgame comments by saying it was a great night, it shouldn't come as a surprise that his Knights rolled to an 86-58 victory over Wabash College at Knights Hall on Thursday night.
 
Bellarmine got off to a bit of a slow start, falling behind 6-0 at the start. But, once the Knights settled in, they reeled off a 14-0 run to take control for good and cruised into halftime with a 42-28 advantage.
 
The second period resembled the opening 20 minutes in that it took the Knights a while to get going, but again outscored the Little Giants by 14 in a half to make the final margin 28.
 
Senior Adam Eberhard, who was playing against his younger brother Alex, put up great numbers.  The two-time All-American flirted with a triple double in just 20 minutes of action with 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.  Fellow senior Chivarsky Corbett heated up in the second half and finished with 17 points to pace the Knights.
 
Jack Davidson of Wabash led all scorers with 18, pouring in 14 in the first half.
 
"First of all it was a great night, Davenport said. "What a crowd.  They were tremendous. The students really came out, and it's a Thursday night and an exhibition game."
 
Davenport then turned his attention to the play on the court. "Looking across the stat sheet," he said, "the numbers are great.  We shot it well.  Our assist to turnover ratio is great; our free throw shooting was great. We hold them to under 40 percent shooting. We just didn't rebound the ball very well.  But we played 16 people tonight, so it was a very positive night."
 
Thirteen of the 16 Knights who hit the hardwood also hit the scoring ledger. Daniel Ramser joined his senior classmates Eberhard and Corbett in double figures with 10 as he turned in a perfect shooting night—4-for-4 from the field, 1-1 from 3-point range, and sank his only free throw.

The numbers bear out Davenport's observations on the stat sheet with the Knights hitting 57.4 of their shots and drilling 16 of 17 free throws while holding Wabash to just 36.5 percent shooting. Bellarmine also dished out 22 assists and turned it over just 10 times.  However, the Little Giants were not so little on the backboards, outrebounding the Knights 31-26.
 
"The great thing about this kind of game is you find out on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if you learned something," Davenport said, pointing out they play a regular season game against an in-region opponent on the road with just six more practices to prepare.
 
Davenport concluded that playing Wabash was good for his team. "They play a different style with half their shots being threes," he said. "And that's good. You see different styles. Louisville was a much more physical style, so this was good for us."
 
The Knights open the regular season by competing in the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge on Nov. 9 and 10.  Bellarmine opens with the host Saginaw Valley State Cardinals and faces Northwood on day two of the event. 
 
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BOX SCORE (PDF)