EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.—The mantra of many college basketball teams come March is "survive and advance," and that precisely what the No. 11 Bellarmine Knights did on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament.
The seventh-seeded Rockhurst Hawks stormed back from a 13-point second half deficit and tied the game at 61-61 with 5.4 seconds remaining to force overtime. But in the extra session, the Knights—seeded second in the tourney--turned up their defense and went 12-for-12 from the free throw line to post a 75-64 victory.
For the second game in a row, senior
Daniel Ramser set a new career high. Tonight, he poured in 20 points thanks to a 4-for-7 shooting night from beyond the arc. The four trifectas also sets a new career mark for Ramser.
The Louisville native was not all about scoring, however. He also dished out a game-high five assists and corralled five boards while coming up with a steal and not committing a turnover in 41 minutes.
"Down the stretch—not just the overtime—our defense was incredible," said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. "And then, our late game execution in situation after situation after situation that we practiced since October was equally tremendous."
Bellarmine had a slow start, scoring just four points in the first five minutes of the game. Fortunately, their defense kept it close and when Ramser converted a short jumper at the 7:04 mark of the first half, the Knights grabbed a 16-14 lead and never trailed after that point.
The Knights found their rhythm in the late stages of the first period and extended their cushion to 31-21 at the break. Then in the second half, each team made runs with Bellarmine enjoying a 42-29 lead when Ramser drained triple at the 15:48 mark.
The Knights then hit a cold spell and the Hawks methodically carved into the Bellarmine lead. At one point, the Knights endured a scoring drought of more than five minutes and with two and half minutes remaining, the BU advantage was down to three.
The Knights seemed to have survived the threat and was in a good position to secure the win when
Chivarsky Corbett converted a layup on nice feed from
Adam Eberhard with 52 seconds remaining in regulation. However the Hawks drained a pair of free throws then turned a Bellarmine turnover into a layup to get within one at 59-58.
Rockhurst then fouled immediately when Bellarmine inbounded the ball, and Ramser calmly swished both charity tosses with 22.9 seconds remaining.
Bellarmine's
CJ Fleming appeared to have preserved the win for the Knights when he blocked Chris Hamil's three-point attempt with less than 10 seconds to go, but Rockhurst's Curtis Lewis scooped up the rebound and knocked down a step-back three to extend the game to overtime.
The Bellarmine defense came up big several times in the overtime period. First
Adam Eberhard blocked a shot on Rockhurst's initial possession, then minutes later Cook made a great block on a Nick Volz layup that would have cut the BU lead to two at the 2:47 mark.
Meanwhile, the Knights were simply clutch from the free throw line. In fact, of Bellarmine's 14 overtime points only two came from a field goal as
Ben Weyer,
Tyler Jenkins, Fleming, Ramser and Eberhard combined to go 12-for-12 in the five-minute overtime.
Lewis paced the Rockhurst offense with 18 points, but the Knights held him to just 4-of-14 shooting from the field. Quinton Curry just missed a double-double for RU with eight points and 11 rebounds. The loss ends the Hawks' season with a record of 17-12.
Top producers for the Knights other than Ramser, included Weyer and Eberhard, who both just missed double-doubles. Weyer finished with 17 points and nine rebounds while Eberhard scored 14 and pulled down nine caroms.
Bellarmine improves to 24-4 on the season and advances to the GLVC semifinals on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m CT). The Knights will face Southern Indiana who defeated Missouri-St. Louis 87-61 in the final quarterfinal game on Thursday night.
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