LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With less than seven seconds left before halftime, Breia Torrens raced up the court. The Bellarmine University sophomore guard considered launching a long jump shot but instead whipped a pass to a cutting Danielle Feldkamp for an easy lay-in just ahead of the buzzer.

The sequence concluded — and encapsulated — a splendid first half in which the Knights built a 24-point advantage over Missouri S&T en route to an 85-75 victory over the Miners in Great Lakes Valley Conference action in Knights Hall.

Junior guard Mikayla Berry stroked five 3-pointers, including a critical one late when Missouri S&T (7-9, 3-6 GLVC) was rallying, in scoring a team-high 20 points for the Knights (9-8, 3-6). Junior forward Mallory Schwartz added 13 points and nine rebounds, freshman guard Bailee Harney scored a career-high 10 points and had five rebounds, and Torrens chipped in nine points, six assists and five rebounds.

Bellarmine entered the locker room at halftime with a 50-26 lead. The Knights drilled seven of their season-high 12 3-pointers, shot 55.6 percent and held a 27-15 rebounding superiority at the intermission. Ten different players scored before the break and seven tallied five points or more.

After missing all 10 of their 3-point attempts in the first half, the Miners suddenly got hot from long range in the second half, sinking five of their seven chances. More specifically, it was Marta Durk who couldn't miss, as she accounted for all five of those trifectas in scoring a game-high 25 points.

Bellarmine led by as many as 29 in the third quarter, but the Miners surged back to within nine at 72-63 on a Durk 3-pointer with 4:52 left. Berry responded by burying a trey from several feet behind the line, and that steadied the Knights, who maintained a double-digit lead until the game's end.

"The basket gets a lot bigger when you're down that much, and (Missouri S&T) made some good shots," Bellarmine Coach Chancellor Dugan said. "We held on and I'm proud of them. We did what we had to do at the end. We made some tough buckets. We did a good job weathering that storm."

Bellarmine bolted out to a 26-12 advantage after one quarter. Schwartz sank a 3-pointer for a 3-2 lead, and the Knights were in front the rest of the way. Less than four minutes into the contest, Berry gave Bellarmine a 10-point lead with a trifecta. Downey capped the period with the Knights' fourth 3-pointer of the frame.

Bellarmine's accuracy from deep carried over into the second quarter. Schwartz canned a 3-pointer to push the Knights' lead to 21 midway through, and when Torrens spotted Feldkamp with time running out, the advantage had swelled to 50-26. The Knights finished 12 for 24 from 3-point range.

Bellarmine will host Southern Indiana at 5:45 p.m. (ET) Saturday.

For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights), Facebook (BUKnights) and the BUKnights mobile app available for iPhone and Android.

BOX SCORE (HTM)