LIBERTY, Mo.—The William Jewell Cardinals shocked the No. 12 Bellarmine Knights 70-69 in overtime on Thursday night in the Mabee Center as Robbie Hanson connected on a 3-pointer with just 5.7 seconds remaining to lift the home team to the win.
Bellarmine had time to run a play, but the team's 26th turnover foiled a last-second shot opportunity.
The Knights had put themselves in position to escape with a victory when
Parker Chitty came up with a steal with 30.8 seconds remaining in overtime, and
CJ Fleming drained a trey to give Bellarmine a 69-67 lead with 21 ticks on the clock.
"It's a devastating loss," said Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport. "There's no other way to sugar coat that. They (WJC) have lost seven out of nine, and they just beat us."
"It's amazing," Davenport said to open his post game comments. "We force them into 24 turnovers; we outshoot them; we outrebound them; we still get eight more shots than they do. The bottom line is they're 12-for-12 from the free throw line because of our inability to guard the basketball off the dribble."
The victory was William Jewell's first-ever over the Knights, who entered the game with a 9-0 record in the series.
Bellarmine struggled in the first half but rallied late to take a 30-20 lead into halftime. After the break, the Cardinals came out on fire, while the Knights continued to turn the ball over. The result was a quick 8-0 run by William Jewell, and the Cardinals took their first lead of the second half on a Mason Alexander triple at the 16:06 mark.
William Jewell went on to build the lead to as many as five in the second period, and Bellarmine faced that deficit with just 3:22 remaining.
Dylan Penn closed the gap almost single-handedly by knocking down a triple then converting a layup to tie the score at 55 apiece with 2:43 to go. Coming down the stretch both teams hit clutch threes with Fleming's triple tying the game at 60. However, neither team could score in the final 44 seconds of regulation as both squads had to settle for overtime.
In the extra session, the Knights hit the first bucket, but that would be their last lead until Fleming's near heroics with 21 seconds on the clock.
The teams combined for 50 turnovers in the game, with the 26 by Bellarmine being the most by a Knights squad since 2008.
Bellarmine (16-4, 9-4 GLVC) shot just 45.9 percent on the night but held WJC to just 43.4. The Knights also held a 33-31 rebounding advantage, but the Cardinals had a 12-9 edge in three pointers. As Davenport mentioned, free throws were a big factor in the game as William Jewell went 12-for-12 from the charity stripe while the Knights made just four of the six they took.
Penn came on late to lead all scorers with 25 points with
Alex Cook adding 20 and pulling in nine boards for Bellarmine.
Pedro Bradshaw added 10 points and seven rebounds while Fleming finished with 11 points and was the lone Knight not to have a turnover.
While William Jewell (9-12, 4-9 GLVC) got no points off the bench in the game, all five starters reached double figures. Eysan Wiley led that quintet with 18 points, going 5-for-7 from the field and draining all eight of his free throws.
Bellarmine returns to action on Saturday as they stay on the road to take on Rockhurst at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday.
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