EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.—It's a familiar script for the Bellarmine women's basketball team—dig a hole in the first half, then come back and finish strong.  
 
Fortunately for the Knights, today's script had a happy ending as Bellarmine came back from a four-point halftime deficit to defeat Southern Indiana 68-57 in the quarterfinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference on Saturday afternoon at the Vadalabene Center on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.
 
Sophomore guard Breia Torrens led the charge for the Knights, missing her career high by just one point in netting 16 points.  She also was huge factor on the defensive end with a career-high-tying seven steals.  Junior forward Mallory Schwartz also delivered a clutch performance for the Knights with 14 points and five rebounds.
 
"We're kind of used to being down at half, so that really didn't faze us that much," said Bellarmine Coach Chancellor Dugan. "But, what a great team win. Presley (Brown) and Bailee (Harney) really came in and created some havoc out there, and "Bre" and "Mal"…my goodness.  Bre played like she wants to play on Sunday. She had a different look about her, even in warmups this morning."
 
Bellarmine opened the game by scoring the first five points, but the Screaming Eagles closed the gap in pretty short order and the first 10 minutes were closely contested with three ties and four lead changes.  A Torrens jumper gave the Knights a 15-14 lead after the first period.
 
The game remained tight until Southern Indiana closed the second quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 32-28 lead into the locker room.
 
The Knights came out in the third quarter showing a 2-3 zone defensively, but the move didn't pay dividends as USI scored the first four points to extend its lead to eight. 
 
After a Katie Downey jumper and a quick timeout by Dugan, the Knights reset their defense. This time Dugan's adjustments paid off with a couple of quick steals and back-to-back trifectas by Brown and Schwartz.  Torrens then knotted the score at 38-38 with a jumper at the six-minute mark.
 
The Knights then eased into a short lead that reached four points on several occasions, including at the end of the period as Schwartz buried another triple just before the buzzer to give Bellarmine a 49-45 advantage heading into the final quarter.

Bellarmine scored just eight seconds into the fourth period, and the Screaming Eagles could get no closer than four points the rest of the way.  The Knights' defense clamped down in the final 10 minutes, holding USI to just 22.7 percent shooting. Meanwhile, the Bellarmine offense was efficient, especially coming down the stretch as the Knights canned 10 of 12 fourth quarter free throws to gradually pull away. The final score represented the largest scoring margin of the game.
 
The Screaming Eagles, who fell to 20-9 on the season, had just two players score in double digits with Ashley Johnson leading the way with 13 and Imani Guy adding 12.
 
The Knights, who improve to 16-11, got 11 points from Downey as she joined Torrens and Schwartz as Bellarmine's double-digit scorers.
 
Defense was the deciding factor in the victory as Bellarmine shot a respectable 43.9 percent while holding USI to just 33.9 percent from the field. Team rebounding also was a key to the Knights victory. Nine different players claimed two or more rebounds for Bellarmine as the Knights held a slim 38-36 rebounding edge over a taller USI team.
 
Bellarmine advances to tomorrow's semifinals where they'll meet the winner of the Lewis-William Jewell contest at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. CT).
 
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