ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—In a hard-fought game that saw both teams make incredible comebacks, in the end it was Southern Indiana outlasting Bellarmine 76-69 in the NCAA Division II Tournament's Midwest Regional Final at Neil Carey Arena on Tuesday night.
After Bellarmine got off to a slow start, the second-seeded Knights roared back with a 14-0 run to take control about midway through the first half. Bellarmine drained eight of 16 triples in the first period and went into halftime with a 42-26 advantage.
The fourth-seeded Screaming Eagles came out in the second half with determination and scored the first six points of the period. After Bellarmine answered to pull back to a 50-36 lead, Southern Indiana unleashed a 14-0 run to knot the score at 50 with 11:35 remaining.
During the run, the Screaming Eagles scored on six straight possessions. Meanwhile, the Knights could not get a shot to drop and committed three turnovers.
Unfortunately for the Knights, their cold shooting continued while USI managed to keep up their pace and took their first lead of the second half on an Alex Stein three-pointer at the 7:52 mark. The Knights never regained the advantage as Southern Indiana made 16 of 26 second half shots and converted four of their five triples. They also took advantage of their free throw opportunities, knocking down 14 of 17 second half attempts.
Conversely, the Knights followed up a solid first half shooting by making just nine of 30 field goals after halftime and finished the night at 40.7 percent.
Following the game, Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport had two main takeaways.
"First of all, I'm incredibly proud of the six seniors and the two senior managers," he said. "Nothing will ever erase that. One game is not going to define how I feel about those seniors."
"And second," Davenport continued, "you give Southern Indiana a tremendous amount of credit. They only missed 10 shots the entire second half. The first four minutes of the second half we missed two layups, and they scored literally every time. We had no answers."
Stein, who had just five points at halftime, exploded for 27 in the second period to finish with 33 while Emmanuel Little added 10 for USI, which improves to 25-8 on the season and now advances to the Elite 8, which they will host in Evansville.
Bellarmine got 22 points from
Tyler Jenkins as he matched his career high, and
Adam Eberhard was just two assists shy of a triple double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Chivarsky Corbett, meanwhile, turned in 17-point, 8-rebound performance despite playing with a suspected broken thumb on his shooting hand.
"He played his heart out," Davenport said. "He played as courageous as you could play. They all did."
The loss ends Bellarmine's season at 28-5, which is the fifth most wins in school history. Although Davenport said the team was "devastated," he was appreciative for his team and for the support from the fans.
"I wouldn't trade places with any coach in America," he said. "You give me any team in America to coach, and I'll take that one right there, without a doubt."
He added, "The fans were incredible. It was like playing at home. I mean, the band, the cheerleaders, the dance team…you couldn't ask for anything more. Again, I'm the luckiest guy. Look who I'm coaching. I would not trade coaching these kids and for this school and in our community with anybody in the country."
The seniors playing in their final game include: Eberhard, Corbett, Jenkins,
Daniel Ramser,
Skyler Hunter, and
Willie Schurfranz. Senior managers are
Joe Simon and
Ben Thompson.
Eberhard, who was named to the All-Midwest Region Tournament Team, ends his incredible Bellarmine career with his name etched in the Knights' record book in many categories. Among the highlights: fourth on the scoring list with 1,860 points, third in assists with 493 and ninth in rebounding with 779.
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