EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.—A driving layup by Breia Torrens with 10 seconds left on the clock lifted the Bellarmine women's basketball team to thrilling 66-65 upset of the No. 19 Lewis Flyers in the semifinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament at the Vadalabene Center on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville on Saturday night.
 
The bucket by Torrens capped a crazy ending that saw four lead changes in the final two minutes. Trailing 60-55 with 7:05 remaining, the Knights scored five straight to tie the game with five minutes to go. Bellarmine took its first lead of the fourth quarter on a tough bank shot by Mallory Schwartz at the 4:15 mark.
 
The Flyers then scored the next three points to re-take the lead at 63-62 with two minutes to go.  Then, neither team could seem to find the bottom of the bucket, going scoreless until Katie Downey drained a short baseline jumper with just 29 seconds left on the clock.
 
With much of the defensive attention being paid to All-American and GLVC Player of the Year Jessica Kelliher, Lewis opted to get the ball inside to Rachel Hinders, who converted a layup to give the lead back to the Flyers with 19 ticks left on the clock. 
 
The Knights called for a timeout, and chose to advance the ball to the front court.  Torrens took the inbounds pass and dribbled around at the top of the key before swinging to the right side and down the baseline and connected on a running layup to put the Knights up 66-65 with exactly 10 seconds on the clock.
 
This time, it was the Flyers who called timeout and took the front court option.  The inbounds pass went to Gabby Green, who had the ball deflected. She was able to regain control and get a pretty good look at 3-pointer from just beyond the top of the key.  The ball rattled around the rim and spun out to give the victory to the Knights.
 
"We kind of ran (the play for Torrens) out of our orange play, and Bre was really open going there," said Bellarmine Coach Chancellor Dugan, who credited assistant Shannon Litton for drawing up the play. "I kind of thought that Mal might be open on the slip, but Bre—they didn't go with her—and Ally set really good second screen, and Bre got around and hit a really tough shot."
 
Dugan also credited her team with never giving up. "We were down five and called timeout, and we told them, 'you're not done. We've worked too hard and stayed too close…let's go.' And we tightened up on defense. I thought we got some huge rebounds on the defensive end, and we were not done," Dugan said.
 
The Knights could have quit early in the proceedings as the Flyers opened with authority, sprinting out to an 8-2 lead. However, Bellarmine's never-say-die attitude kept the Knights fighting and soon turned the game into an 11-11 tie. 
 
After the Flyers made another run toward the end of the quarter, the Knights got a huge boost when Torrens banked in a shot from midcourt as time expired to pull BU within 20-16. 
 
The second quarter also saw Lewis get on a roll, and extended its lead to nine at the midway point, but again the Knights fought back. And again, it was Torrens that drilled a three-pointer to close the scoring in the period. While it came with 35 seconds remaining, it wasn't as dramatic as her closing triple in the first quarter, but it was equally as important, as it drew Bellarmine into a 36-36 tie, which is the way the teams went into halftime.
 
While Torrens came through in the clutch several times for the Knights, it was Mikayla Berry that paced the Bellarmine offense, scoring 19 points and draining three of four from beyond the arc.  The deep ball was a big factor for the Knights, who hit eight of 13 trifectas for the game. Oddly enough, the Knights had the exact same numbers from the free throw line.
 
Torrens finished with 14 points while hitting four of seven from long range. She also came up with four steals on the defensive end.
 
Kelliher claimed game-high scoring honors with 20 while Hinders turned in a double-double for the Flyers with 11 points and 10 rebounds.  
 
Lewis, the GLVC No. 2 seed, suffers just its fourth loss of the season against 26 victories.
 
Bellarmine, which came into the tournament as the No. 6 seed, improves to 17-11 and advances to tomorrow's final against top-seeded and national No. 1 Drury. Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. CT).
 
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