LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Although classes will not be in session on Wednesday, the third-ranked Bellarmine Knights will still be tested on the day before Thanksgiving with the Badgers of Spring Hill College visiting Knights Hall for a 3 p.m. contest.
 
The game will be the first ever between the two southern Catholic universities.  Many Knights fans will remember Spring Hill College, however, as the starting point for eventual Bellarmine All-American Jake Thelen.  The older brother of freshman Nick Thelen started his collegiate career in Mobile, Alabama, where he earned Freshman of the Year honors in the Southern States Conference while playing for the Badgers.  Jake Thelen would go on to become a consensus All-American at Bellarmine while leading the Knights to the 2015 Final Four.
 
Since Thelen's time at Spring Hill, the Badgers have moved from the NAIA's Southern States Conference.  They joined the NCAA DII ranks beginning the 2014-15 season as member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  
 
Last season Spring Hill struggled to an 8-20 mark overall including going 4-14 in conference play. While the Badgers lost three of their starters from that squad and have started the 2019-20 campaign just 1-4, there is a silver lining for Coach Craig Kennedy, and that is he welcomes back a pair of seniors who redshirted last season.
 
Chase Shellman—a 6-6 forward from Louisville's DeSales High School, is back for a fifth season after injuries sidelined him last year.  He's making the most of his final year, leading the team in scoring and rebounding at 15.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.  Also returning as a redshirt senior is 6-0 guard Dwight Harris, who is second on the team in scoring at 11 points a game.
 
The Knights come into Wednesday' game 4-0 on the season after picking up their first road win last week at Lindenwood.  Sophomore Dylan Penn spearheaded a dramatic comeback win with a career-high 27 points as Bellarmine erased an early 15-point deficit to turn back the Lions 81-73.
 
Seniors Alex Cook and Ben Weyer have been the leading performers for Bellarmine in the season's early going.  Cook is putting up 18 points a game while hauling in a team-best 6.3 rebounds while Weyer adds 20.3 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per contest.
 
As has become its trademark, the Bellarmine team again is shooting with precision.  Although four games is a relatively small sample size, the Knights have risen to second in the country in field goal percentage at 55.7 percent, and after last Wednesday's 21-for-21 performance at the free line, Bellarmine is the national leader at 91.3 percent from the charity stripe.

Wednesday's game will be the last chance for the Knights to prep before playing their first Great Lakes Valley Conference game, which comes Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the University of Indianapolis.  The Greyhounds, who host Spring Hill on Tuesday night, have raced out to a 6-0 start this season and are ranked among the nation's top 25.
 
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