LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The No. 1 Bellarmine Knights brushed off a slow start and a hot 3-point shooting night from the host Christian Brothers Buccaneers to post an 81-63 road victory on Wednesday night at Canale Arena.
Christian Brothers jumped out to an early 17-9 lead, but the Knights battled back to draw even at 20-20 and never trailed the rest of the game. While the Buccaneers enjoyed a hot shooting night, draining 12 of 21 3-pointers, the Knights forced 20 CBU turnovers to maintain control of the game.
The Knights pulled out to a 45-34 edge at halftime and extended that advantage to 18 just 5:16 into the second half. The game's largest margin was 20, coming with 1:21 remaining.
"Our effort and execution were great, but our decision-making was a little off," said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport in his postgame comments. "The first half was very difficult for us. I thought the second half, we were very good. The first eight minutes of the second half we were really good."
Despite the Knights' poor decision-making, Bellarmine canned 31 of 48 shots for 66.7 percent.
Pedro Bradshaw and
Ethan Claycomb combined to go nine-for-nine from the field while sophomore
Dylan Penn led all scorers with 19 points.
Alex Cook added 18 for the Knights.
Bellarmine attempted just nine 3-pointers on the night, making four for 44 percent as the Bucs enjoyed a 24-point advantage from the 3-point line. In fact, Christian Brothers shot better from beyond the arc than from 2-point land, converting just 12 of 26 from inside the perimeter.
In addition to 3-point shooting, rebounding was another area in which the Knights were outperformed. Despite entering with a nation's-best +12.6 rebounding margin, Bellarmine was outrebounded 24-22 on the night.
Bellarmine did own distinct advantages in points in the paint (52-22), points off turnovers (29-13) and fast break points (26-4).
The victory moved the Knights to 8-0 on the season while Christian Brothers falls a game under .500 at 5-6.
Wednesday's game was the Knights' final contest in calendar year 2019. Bellarmine returns to action Jan. 2 with a home game against Illinois Springfield.
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