OXFORD, Ohio—The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens famously opens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  The Bellarmine men's basketball team could borrow that famous first line to chronicle its past week in a narrative called "The Tale of Two Road Trips."
 
Bellarmine's week started with a trip to South Dakota that was riddled with travel issues and featured a game that saw a second half downturn resulting in a three-point halftime lead eroding into a double digit loss to the Coyotes. To make matters worse, the team suffered personnel losses through illness and injury.
 
That was the worst of times.
 
Then, the Knights had to pack up and go back on the road to take on a veteran Miami RedHawks team out of the Mid-American Conference.
 
Playing short-handed, the Knights put up a good effort in the opening 20 minutes, but the scoreboard read Miami 34, Bellarmine 32 at halftime.  Coming out of the break, the home team scored the first four points to extend the lead to six. 
 
Then came the best of times for the Knights. 
 
Playing stifling defense that switched between zone and man-to-man and running an efficient offense that led to 66.7 percent shooting, Bellarmine flew past the RedHawks to claim a 77-68 victory and improve to 6-7 on the year.  
 
In his postgame comments to ESPN 3, Coach Scott Davenport was visibly emotional in explaining how happy he was for his team.  "It's all about them," he said, referring to his players and crediting the entire team for the victory.
 
While the team certainly deserves the credit for the win with its outstanding defensive effort, there were no shortage of outstanding individual efforts.
 
Alec Pfriem was the go-to player for Bellarmine in the first half as he hit four of five triples in pouring in 16 first half points to help keep the Knights within striking distance. The junior from nearby Cincinnati finished with a career-high 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting, which included going 6-for-8 from beyond the arc.  The performance didn't surprise Davenport. "We see it every day in practice," he said.
 
Dylan Penn also turned in another great game.  The senior guard had just two points at halftime but finished with 16 points and a career-high 10 assists.  CJ Fleming also was a clutch performer finishing with a season-high 18 points and draining all six of his free throws at crunch time.
 
Juston Betz added a game-high seven rebounds and drilled a crucial three-pointer. On the defensive end, Betz came up with four steals.
 
For the game, the Knights shot at a 58.8 percent clip (31-53), which including going 9-for-21 (42.9%) from three-point range.  The Knights forced 11 turnovers but committed just six and held a 16-4 edge in points off turnovers.
 
Miami (5-5) was led by Dae Dae Grant, who tied Pfriem for game-high honors with 22 points.  The RedHawks outrebounded Bellarmine 32-23 helping them claim a 13-2 advantage in second chance points.
 
Bellarmine hopes the best of times will continue when they return to Freedom Hall on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game against Loyola Marymount.