LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine Knights' valiant second half comeback came up agonizingly short as
Alec Pfriem's last second 3-pointer bounced off the rim and visiting Queens University of Charlotte escaped with a 75-74 victory in an ASUN Conference contest at Freedom Hall on Thursday night.
After Queens spurted out to a quick 5-0 lead, the Knights responded with hot shooting and took a 22-18 lead on a short jumper by
Juston Betz at the 10:24 mark. However, Bellarmine then turned ice cold making just one more field goal the rest of the first half as Queens took advantage of BU turnovers and strong offensive rebounding to take a 40-26 advantage at halftime.
Bellarmine made some adjustments at the break and slowly chipped away at the Queens lead, finally inching in front 66-65 at the 6:06 mark. From there, neither team led by more than three. The Knights got a clutch 3-pointer from
Garrett Tipton at the 1:34 mark to put BU up 72-70, but the Royals answered 17 seconds later to tie the game.
After a Bellarmine miss, the Knights battled for the offensive rebound, but committed their only turnover of the second half, and on the change of possession, Queens' AJ McKee drew a foul. He went to the free throw line to shoot the one and one with 27 seconds remaining. He hit the first, but his second attempt caromed high off the back iron and Queens grabbed the offensive rebound.
Bellarmine then fouled Chris Ashby, who drained both charity tosses to give Queens a 75-72 lead with 23 clicks left on the clock. Tipton dropped in a short jumper to bring the Knights within one point with just over seven seconds remaining.
Again, Bellarmine sent the Royals to the free throw line, but McKee missed both ends of the double bonus.
Curt Hopf grabbed the rebound, and the Knights--who didn't have any timeouts remaining, raced up court where
Peter Suder drew a foul as time expired. A video review ruled that the foul came on the floor—not in the act of shooting—with 0.6 seconds remaining.
Because it was the just the sixth foul whistled on Queens in the second period, Bellarmine was not yet in the bonus and had to inbound the ball. The Knights got it to Pfriem with a decent look from deep on the left wing, but his shot was just a little long and Queens held on the for win.
"That's a tough locker room," Bellarmine Coach
Scott Davenport said after the game about his team's disappointment. "I've always said on the winning nights, if AP (Pfriem) hits that shot, then the locker room is joyous."
In breaking down the game, Davenport said, "What's important is they (Queens) missed 31 shots and had 15 offensive rebounds, number one. Number two, they outscored us 18 with 10:24 to go until halftime. You can't beat a team that's 11-4 if you don't play 40 minutes."
Bellarmine certainly overcame its first half shooting slump, making 58.8 percent in the second period to finish the night outshooting Queens 53.4 to 47.5 percent. However, to illustrate Coach Davenport's point about the Royals' rebounding, they owned an 18-8 edge in second chance points. Queens also made five more treys than the Knights, finishing 12 of 31 from deep while BU was seven of 17.
The Knights, who fell to 6-10 (1-2 ASUN), got a career-high 27 points from Tipton as the 6-4 Columbus, Ohio native led all scorers while also grabbing six rebounds. Suder also had a strong outing with 22 points while Hopf added 12 points and six boards. Betz handed out a game-high eight assists and made three steals.
Queens (12-4, 2-1 ASUN) was paced my McKee, who finished with 20 points while making five of eight 3-pointers. Gavin Rains entered the contest as the ASUN's leading rebounder, and he actually increased his season average by claiming 14 boards.
Bellarmine now hits the road for a Saturday contest at Jacksonville State at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. CT). The Gamecocks, who were the ASUN's regular season champs last year, fell to 7-9 (0-3 ASUN) with a 75-41 loss to Liberty tonight.
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