LIBERTY, Mo.—The No. 1 Bellarmine Knights led wire-to-wire in defeating William Jewell 85-65 tonight in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game in the Mabee Center.
With the win, the Knights improve to 15-0 (6-0 GLVC) and set a new school record for best start to a season. Coming into the game, the 2018-19 team was tied with both the 2008-09 and 2017-18 teams with 14 victories to start the season.
In tonight's game, the host Cardinals kept it close in the first half by hitting eight of 16 treys, but the Knights still managed to take a 40-34 lead into the locker room at half. The second period was pretty much all Bellarmine as the Knights bolted out with a 7-0 run to start the final 20 minutes. William Jewell called a quick timeout, but the Cardinals never seriously challenged as the BU lead grew to as many as 27 before WJC finished on a 7-0 run to make the final margin 20.
"It was a tale of two halves," said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. "I thought the second half our sense of urgency and energy was just so different. In the first half we just weren't very consistent as a team. But I thought the second half—right from the jump—we played Bellarmine basketball, and I was very proud of them."
The "Bellarmine basketball" to which Coach Davenport refers comes through on the final stat sheet in the form of 57.1 percent shooting and holding William Jewell to just 43.5 percent. The Knights also did a much better job of defending the 3-pointer in the second period, holding the Cardinals to just 3-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc.
Individually for Bellarmine,
Alex Cook had a big night. The Louisville junior tied his career-high with 24 while knocking down nine of 11 field goals and five of six free throws. In fact, Bellarmine's front line, as a whole, was quite impressive.
Adam Eberhard contributed 22 points, eight rebounds, and five assists;
Ben Weyer poured in 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting; and
Chivarsky Corbett hauled in a game-high nine rebounds to go along with six points. In all, 15 players saw court time for the Knights with nine hitting the scoring column.
Keith Hayes, who came into the game as the GLVC's leading scorer, was held under his average, but he still paced the Cardinal offense with 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting. Byron Harp added 15 points for William Jewell, which slipped to 8-10 overall and 2-4 in league play.
Bellarmine returns to action on Saturday at Rockhurst, which dropped a 78-59 decision to Southern Indiana on Thursday night. Game time is still undetermined. Originally scheduled for a 4 p.m. (ET) tip, moving the game up several hours has been discussed to avoid potentially hazardous weather (driving) conditions. A decision will be made on Friday.
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