JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—After the Bellarmine Knights turned in one of their best performances of the year to take a 48-29 lead at the intermission, they had to hold off a furious second half comeback by the host North Florida Ospreys to hang on for a 73-70 win in an ASUN Conference game at UNF Arena on Wednesday night.
 
The Ospreys, who never led in the game, whittled their deficit to just two with 36 seconds remaining. Bellarmine then missed a front end of a one-and-one with just 20 seconds showing on the clock. North Florida collected the rebound and worked the clock down before Jonathan Aybar was fouled under the basket with just 3.9 ticks left in regulation.  He swished his first free throw attempt, but his second free throw hit the back iron, and Bellarmine's Juston Betz claimed an important rebound and was immediately fouled.
 
Betz converted both of his charity tosses to give Bellarmine a 73-70 lead with 3.4 seconds remaining.  After a timeout by each team, North Florida threw the inbounds pass to midcourt and Aybar collected the ball and was immediately fouled.  After not converting his first free throw, Aybar intentionally missed on the second, but UNF got a tip out to Jarius Hicklen, whose off-balance three pointer at the buzzer was just long as the Knights held on for the win.
 
"It was absolutely two different games," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.  "That first half was a thing of beauty.  We had 20 baskets on 16 assists, shot 54 percent, held them to 41 percent, and had no turnovers."
 
Davenport added that foul trouble contributed to the difference in the halves. "I loved our rotation in the first half from a substitution standpoint," he said. "In the second half, we had no chance to have any substitutions because of the foul trouble on our big guys."  (Both Curt Hopf and Sam DeVault fouled out after logging a combined 24 minutes of action.)
 
In the first half, Bellarmine (14-11, 8-3 ASUN) seemingly could do no wrong, finishing with no turnovers while going 7-for-14 from long distance and 20 of 37 overall. In the second period, the Knights made just nine of 28 shots and went 2-for-13 from the 3-point line.  The Knights also were an uncharacteristic 5-for-10 from the free throw line after halftime.
 
Despite the downturn in performance in the second half, Davenport was pleased with the win.  "I went to the locker room (after the game), and not a coach, nobody but your leadership, had eight and three written on the board," he said. "You're on a team that's in year two of transitioning from Division II to Division I and you're 8-3 in the league with five to go.  You're not going to get any complaints from me."
 
CJ Fleming equaled his career high with 25 points to lead all scorers. Dylan Penn had a tough shooting night for the Knights, but the senior guard dished out a game-high nine assists and his seven rebounds tied Betz and Ethan Claycomb for the team high.
 
North Florida (7-18, 3-8 ASUN) was paced by Aybar, who turned in a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
The Knights will hit the road again this weekend as Bellarmine returns to in-division play with a trip to Florence, Alabama to face the North Alabama Lions on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. CT).