LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Bellarmine Knights closed their epic road trip by giving the No. 19 Kentucky Wildcats a bit of a scare before the home team used a 23-3 run in the second half to take control of the game and post a 60-41 victory in front of more the 19,000 fans in Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.
 
The Knights led the majority of the first half and went into the intermission tied at 21.  The Wildcats came out and scored an old-fashioned 3-point play to open the second half, but Bellarmine fought back to retake lead, holding a 32-28 edge at the under 16 timeout.  On the restart, Kentucky started its spurt and opened up a 51-35 lead at the 6:07 mark and coasted in the rest of the way to take the 19-point win.
 
Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport lauded his team and his staff in his postgame radio comments.  "In terms of doing what we asked them to do, our guys opened their chests and gave it everything they had," he said. "It was an incredible effort. These kids gave us and this university and our community everything they had."
 
Davenport also revealed that his staff was being given a mandatory day off after navigating the Knights through their recent road swing that encompassed approximately 6,000 miles and included games at Clemson, Duke, Loyola Marymount and UCLA on Sunday before playing Kentucky on Tuesday.
 
Tonight's game was a defensive struggle from the outset with neither team scoring until Bellarmine's Curt Hopf drained a 3-pointer at the 17:55 mark.  It was another two minutes before either team scored again, with Hopf canning another triple to put the Knights up 6-0.
 
Kentucky finally got on the board with a follow basket at the 15:38 mark, but the Knights held the advantage until Oscar Tshiebwe tied the game at 10 apiece with 9:55 remaining in the opening period.  The Wildcats didn't wrestle the lead away from the Knights until the 5:37 mark on a Cason Wallace free throw.
 
The host Wildcats then ran out to a 21-14 advantage, but Bellarmine closed the first half with a 7-0 run to tie the score at 21.
 
Hopf ended his night with a game-high 15 points as he made a career-best five treys.  Senior Bash Wieland also turned in a solid effort, netting 10 points while hauling in a career-high eight rebounds. Garrett Tipton was the Bellarmine assist leader with four.
 
Kentucky (5-2) was paced by Antonio Reeves's 18 points.  Tshiebwe, last year's consensus college player of the year, was held to just eight points, but he pulled down 12 rebounds and rejected three shots.
 
The game's shooting statistics reflect the defensive battle.  The Knights were held to just 30.4 percent field goal shooting while the Wildcats heated up in the second half and finished at 41.5 percent for the game.
 
Bellarmine, which fell to 2-6 on the year, now gets a well-deserved break before making its regular season debut in Freedom Hall on Sunday when the Knights host the Eagles of Alice Lloyd College in a 4 p.m. contest.
 
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Postgame Press Conference: