LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Playing archrival Southern Indiana clearly brings out the best in the Bellarmine University women's basketball team.

On Thursday in Knights Hall, Bellarmine busted out to a 16-0 lead and cruised to a regular-season sweep of the Screaming Eagles in an 80-49 romp in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

It was a resilient effort by Bellarmine (16-10, 11-8 GLVC), which followed its most lopsided loss of the season — a 93-70 setback to Maryville — with its most resounding victory. The Knights also collected a decisive 66-45 road win over Southern Indiana (17-8, 13-6), one of the league's top teams, on Jan. 11.

"The Maryville game really hurt us. That took the wind out of our sails," Knights Coach Chancellor Dugan said. "I let them know on the practice court that wasn't going to happen again. The girls understand. They want to be as good as I want them to be."

Four players scored in double figures for Bellarmine, which has won five of its last six games. Junior guard Breia Torrens knocked down five of her nine 3-point attempts in pouring in a game-high 19 points. Sophomore forward Alisha Owens came off the bench to register 12 points, and freshman guard Ashlee Harris did as well in tallying a season-high 11. Junior guard Tasia Jeffries chipped in 11.

Name a statistical category, and Bellarmine pretty much dominated it. The Knights shot 47.6 percent to 34 percent for the Screaming Eagles, held a 42-31 rebounding advantage and turned USI over 26 times while committing 17.

As a result, Bellarmine posted a 33-11 superiority in points off turnovers, a 16-4 edge in second-chance points and a 36-13 advantage in bench points. The Knights racked up 13 steals, led by the three of Jeffries. They assisted on 24 of their 30 field goals, with six apiece distributed by Torrens and senior guard Mikayla Berry.

"I like how we're starting and how we're playing defensively," Dugan said. "We're sharing the ball, and we're a tough team when we do that."

Bellarmine outscored Southern Indiana in every quarter, but essentially, the outcome was decided in the first period. When it was over, the Knights had exploded to a 27-6 lead. Torrens found senior center Ally Mayhaus for a basket 23 seconds into the game and, about four minutes later, Jeffries buried a 3-pointer for an 11-0 advantage. When senior forward Allison Van Dyke canned consecutive baskets, the latter being a trifecta, Bellarmine's lead swelled to 16-0.

Torrens capped the electrifying performance in the first quarter with a 3-pointer for a 21-point advantage. The sizzling Knights buried five of their six 3-point attempts in the period and 11-of-15 shots overall.

Bellarmine bumped the lead to 25 on a couple occasions in the second quarter before carrying a 44-21 advantage into halftime. The lead rose to 33 in the third period and topped out at 34 in the fourth.

"USI came out hard and aggressive in the third quarter," Dugan said. "We made a couple nice baskets, and from there we were ready to go."

Bellarmine concludes the regular season by hosting McKendree at 1 p.m. (ET) Saturday. It will be Senior Day for the Knights.

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