LYNCHBURG, Va.—It was an epic night for Bellarmine men's basketball.  First, the Knights pulled off a 53-50 road upset of Liberty in the ASUN Championship semifinals.  Then in the other semifinal game, Jacksonville pulled off the road upset of Jacksonville State, meaning the Knights will host the ASUN Championship game in Freedom Hall on Tuesday. 
 
For Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport, it was an epic night before he even knew the Jacksonville score. "That was an epic college basketball game," the 17^th year head coach said of his team's win over Liberty, "I'm not saying it was a thing of beauty, but in terms of the game from a respect level, it was incredible."
 
As Davenport suggested, tonight's action wasn't always pretty to watch, but it was dramatic. Both teams enjoyed double-digit leads and displayed tough defense, and in the end, the game came down to literally the final shot.
 
Bellarmine, the West Division's No. 2 seed, looked unstoppable coming out of the gates and roared to a 14-2 lead.  But the Flames, the East's No. 1 seed, didn't flinch and responded with a 12-0 run to tie it at 14 apiece.  Then, it was Liberty's turn to go on the run while the Knights struggled offensively.
 
Bellarmine failed to score in the final 9:12 of the first half as the Knights misfired on its final 12 shots of the period.  Meanwhile, the Flames found their rhythm and held a 23-18 edge at the break.
 
Ethan Claycomb finally ended the scoring drought with a deep 3-pointer about a minute into the second half, but Liberty was able to extend its lead to 10 on a triple by ASUN Player of the Year Darius McGhee at the 18:07 mark. 
 
This time it was Bellarmine that didn't flinch as Claycomb and Dylan Penn came up with huge second half performances. That duo combined to register 27 of the Knights' 35 second half points. 
 
Penn was pivotal coming down the stretch, converting two contested layups in the final 1:18.  Both buckets gave Bellarmine one-point leads.  After Penn's basket with 42 seconds remaining, Juston Betz came up with a steal, and  the Knights worked the clock down until Claycomb was fouled with 20 ticks remaining.  He canned both ends of the one-and-one to put Bellarmine up 51-48.
 
The Knights then defended the three-point line, leaving Liberty's Keegan McDowell open for a layup that trimmed the lead to just one.  The Flames then fouled Bellarmine CJ Fleming with seven seconds remaining, and he also converted both ends of the one-and-one.
 
Bellarmine still had fouls to give and were able to milk a little bit of time off the clock with a foul before McGhee missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer.
 
Penn paced the Knights with 19 points and four assists while Claycomb finished with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting.  Fleming added 11 points with Betz the leading rebounder with eight. 
 
Davenport lauded the efforts of all of his players, "I couldn't be prouder of them," he said. "I don't know how you can thank them enough."  On Penn's performance tonight, Davenport said, "Dylan took his shirt tail out and said, 'Everybody grab on, and I going to take you with me.'"
 
For Liberty, McGhee tossed in a game-high 21 points while Brody Peebles chipped in 10.
 
The ASUN Championship game on Tuesday is slated to be played at 5 p.m. in front of a national television audience on ESPN 2. Bellarmine and Jacksonville met once in the regular season with the Knights pulling out a 76-73 overtime victory in Freedom Hall.
 
Ticket information for the championship game is expected to be released tomorrow (Sunday, March 6).

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