ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—After dropping three of their last four games, the No. 8 Bellarmine Knights seemed to return to form with a convincing 77-60 road win over Lewis on Saturday afternoon in Neil Carey Arena.
 
Bellarmine turned in impressive performances at both ends of the floor, shooting 56.6 percent from the field while holding the Flyers to just 37.5 percent as Lewis launched 30 of its 56 shots from beyond the arc.
 
While Knights head coach Scott Davenport was pleased with the effort, he seemed the most impressed with the number of outstanding individual contributions his team made. "What impressed me most," Davenport said, "was that we scored 77 points and only had two people in double figures with the high being 14.  That's hard to do."
 
Davenport said his team's defensive effort can be summed up by the way the Knights handled one of Lewis' top players. "I thought we did a tremendous job (on defense) because Dre Bell is one of the most effective offensive players in this league—he had 21 at Bellarmine the first time we played them—and he had five tonight, all in the second half."
 
Bellarmine was in control from the opening tip, racing out to a quick 11-2 lead and never trailing in the game.  Although the Flyers put together a brief 7-0 run midway through the first half, the Knights rebounded and extended the halftime lead to 16 at 37-21.  In the second period, Bellarmine saw its lead grow to as many as 23 before coasting home the final four and a half minutes for a 17-point victory.
 
Junior guard CJ Fleming ended as Bellarmine's leading scorer with 14 points, but the Cincinnati native needed a strong finish to get there.  After missing his first four three-pointers, he drained four in a row over a five minute span starting at the 12:29 mark to finish 5-for-11 overall from the field and 4-for-8 from 3-point range.
 
Bellarmine's Alex Cook was the only other Knight in double figures with 12 as 10 different players scored.  Freshman Alec Pfriem, who has earned a spot in the starting five with his inspired play of late, notched nine points on 4-of-4 shooting while dishing out five assists.  Sophomore Cobe Penny, who celebrated his 20th birthday today, matched Pfriem's output with nine points while Ethan Claycomb tied Pfriem for team-high assist honors with five.
 
The Knights' shooting performance—30 of 53—is made even more impressive knowing that the Flyers held Bellarmine to its worst field goal percentage of the season (38.6%) the first time the teams met back on Jan. 4.  Bellarmine passing can be credited for the shooting improvement as the Knights handed out 20 assists tonight but just half of that total in the January game.
 
Anthony D'Avanzo of Lewis (10-10, 5-7 GLVC) led all scorers with 19 with Marco Pettinato adding 12 for the Flyers.
 
The Knights (16-3, 9-3 GLVC) stay on the road for their next two games traveling to William Jewell on Thursday and facing Rockhurst on Saturday.
 
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