LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Fantastic finish. Instant classic.  Pick whatever superlative cliché you want, and the Bellarmine-Eastern Kentucky matchup on Thursday night in Freedom Hall will live up to the hype. 
 
Playing from behind the entire second half, Bellarmine's Garrett Tipton netted a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds remaining to snatch the victory from the jaws of defeat for the homestanding Knights as Bellarmine claimed a 72-71 victory in the ASUN Conference battle.
 
Just 55 seconds prior to the game-winner, Tipton nailed a triple to bring the Knights to within striking distance at 71-69.  Between the trifectas, the Knights came up with a crucial defensive stop when EKU's Devontae Blanton was whistled for traveling with 28.5 seconds remaining.
 
The Colonels had fouls to give and committed two fouls late in the game before Bellarmine took a timeout with 6.5 seconds on the clock. On the inbounds play, Curt Hopf took the pass and shuffled it to Alec Pfriem who drove the lane and kicked back out to Tipton at the top of the key for the game-winning triple.
 
"It was a side out-of-bounds play," Tipton said. "We got Alec going downhill because we knew they were going to help at the rim.  Curt was open and Blanton helped off of me to go to Curt, and I had the shot and took it.  It's something we work on every day."
 
When the shot fell, it meant the Knights had erased a 7-point deficit in the final 1:41.  The Colonels had built a lead as large as 15 earlier in the half after EKU's Michael Moreno heated up from outside and buried four 3-pointers in a span of just two minutes and 44 seconds.
 
Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport said, "I'll give Eastern all the due credit.  That was one heck of a college basketball game.  That was two really good basketball teams playing."
 
Davenport also was happy to see Tipton shine in the game's postgame spotlight. "Garrett Tipton is a young man the NCAA should put on a pedestal for what he stands for academically, what he stands athletically, what he stands for socially in terms of giving to the community," he said. "You couldn't ask for a better representative, and just think, he's never going to forget that moment right there.  And the highlight of my night was the players celebrating each other.  Not a one of them said, 'Look what I did.'"
  
In addition to Tipton's heroics, Bellarmine got solid contributions from all over the court. Freshman Peter Suder, who was playing on an injured ankle, came up big with a career-high 11 rebounds to go along with 10 points and five assists.
 
Five Bellarmine players hit double digits, led by Juston Betz with 18 points while adding seven boards and four assists.  Ben Johnson added 14 from off the bench with Alec Priem dropping in 12 and Tipton finishing with 13.
 
Moreno held game-high scoring honors with 21 for EKU while Isaiah Cozart notched a double-double for the Colonels with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Bellarmine improves to 10-12 on the year with a 5-4 ASUN record, and EKU drops to 13-9, 6-3 ASUN. The same two teams are back at it again on Saturday night when the Knights travel to Richmond for a 7 p.m. rematch.
 
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