LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University women's basketball team will be facing a national power on a national platform.
On Thursday in Knights Hall, Bellarmine will welcome second-ranked and undefeated Drury for a 5:35 p.m. (ET) tip-off in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
The Knights (8-7, 2-5 GLVC) and Panthers (17-0, 7-0), along with their respective men's teams, will be featured as part of the NCAA Division II Basketball Showcase. The doubleheader is part of 22 scheduled Division II basketball contests planned for this season with the intent to promote the division on an array of different media platforms throughout the year.
The Bellamine-Drury doubleheader will be broadcast live and for free on the GLVC Sports Network as well as the Division II, GLVC, Bellarmine and Drury Facebook pages and on the DII Twitter page and Periscope app at @NCAADII. The games are also available on local television. The men's game can be seen on WBNA Channel 21 (Spectrum channel 916) with the women's game airing on "The Big 4" (Channel 21.4, Spectrum channel 185).
Drury is one of five unbeaten teams remaining in DII. The Panthers are ranked second nationally behind Indiana (Pa.). Drury has built off a 2017-18 campaign in which the Panthers went 31-3, won the GLVC Tournament title and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament before getting edged 79-73 by top-ranked Ashland, which finished as the national runner-up. Bellarmine dealt the Panthers one of their three losses last season after an 84-70 upset in mid-January in Knights Hall.
Drury leads the GLVC in a slew of categories, including scoring offense (84.3), scoring defense (56.0), scoring margin (plus-28.3), assists (21.1), steals (17.3), turnover margin (plus-14.4) and 3-pointers made per game (7.8). Last week the Panthers were on the road and collected a 72-55 win over McKendree and a 97-58 victory over Illinois Springfield.
Hailey Diestelkamp is close to averaging a double-double for Drury. She ranks second in the GLVC in both scoring (19.6) and rebounding (9.5). Paige Robinson is fourth in the league in scoring (16.0) and easily tops the conference in 3-pointers made with 54 while shooting 47.4 percent from beyond the arc. Daejah Bernard paces the GLVC in assists (6.3) and steals (3.8). Bernard, Diestelkamp and Lauren Holmes actually rank 1-3 in the league in steals, with each averaging over three thefts per game.
Bellarmine will close its week of play by hosting Missouri S&T (7-7, 3-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Miners are coming off a stretch where they competed three times over five days. They picked up an 83-77 win at Illinois Springfield and dropped a 76-63 contest at McKendree before triumphing 81-61 at home over Indianapolis. The latter contest took place Monday as Missouri S&T outscored the Greyhounds 47-27 in the second half.
Alex Kerr paces the Miners in scoring at 11.9 points per game. Maddie Raley is right behind at 11.8. Missouri S&T leads the GLVC in blocked shots (4.9). Mykala Baylor is the individual leader at 2.8 per contest, and she's also fourth in rebounding (8.9).
Bellarmine is looking to end a three-game slide. Last week the Knights dropped road contests at William Jewell, 76-61, and Rockhurst, 62-52. In the latter, junior forward
Mallory Schwartz scored a career-high 18 points and had seven rebounds. Sophomore guard
Breia Torrens tallied 15 points or more in three of her last five games.
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