LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After two games away from Newburg Road, the Bellarmine men's basketball team returns home to Knights Hall for a pair of games against Bowling Green Saturday at 3 p.m. ET and Midway Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
 
About Bowling Green
BGSU enters Saturday at 2-3 overall and 0-2 on the road, dropping games at Southern Miss (77-68) to open the season and at Michigan State (86-72) last Saturday. Their lone win against a D-I opponent was a 76-68 win over Niagara (No. 321 in KenPom) on Tuesday. As a team, the Falcons rank first in the MAC and 41^st nationally in effective field goal percentage (adjusts field goal percentage to account for the fact that three-point field goals count for three points and other field goals only count for two) and 48^th in three-point percentage at 39.1 percent.
 
Senior forward Marcus Johnson ranks first in the MAC and is tied for T-50^th nationally averaging 19.8 points. He is also T-67^th nationally with 15 made three-pointers. At 6-foot-7, 265 pounds and playing outside, he presents a challenge defensively. On the defensive end, junior guard Javontae Campbell is 28^th nationally averaging 2.8 steals.
 
Bellarmine beat BGSU 85-67 last November in Bowling Green in the first matchup between the programs. Ben Johnson scored 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, 4-of-5 from deep. Billy Smith added 16 as he hit 6-of-7 from the field, 2-of-3 from three. As a group, BU shot 58.3% (28-for-48) from the field and hit 64.7% (11-for-17) of their threes, both their top percentages on the season. The Knights are 3-2 against MAC teams since transitioning to Division I.
 
Davenport on the Falcons
"Bowling Green is a very long, athletic, veteran team starting three seniors and two juniors. They have a very impressive new roster. Our challenge begins at the defensive end against a team averaging 82 points per game and shooting 49 percent from the field and 39 percent from the three. The health of our squad is a game-time decision." –Head coach Scott Davenport
 
About Midway
Midway will enter Tuesday at 2-3 on the season and 0-3 away from their home along I-64 just northwest of Lexington. The NAIA Eagles will play three NCAA Division I teams this year, also making trips to Cleveland State on December 22 and James Madison on December 28. Bellarmine is 4-0 all-time against Midway, earning home wins against them in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2023 by an average score of 89-49. Last November, the Knights were victorious inside Freedom Hall in the closest game of the series, a 77-56 win.
 
Last Time Out
Bellarmine fell in an in-town battle with Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday 100-68. Ben Johnson led all scorers with a season-high 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting, 6-of-11 from three. Johnson, who shot .381 from deep last season, had been just 3-for-18 from three so far this season. Bellarmine was without leading scorer Jack Karasinski (18.3 points per game), but hope to have him back against Bowling Green. The Knights were able to put together an 11-0 run in the second half on a layup by Dylan Branson and a trio of Johnson threes to bring them back to within 15 at 61-46, but the Cardinals were able to pull away for a 32-point win. Louisville's size was an issue all night for Bellarmine. U of L outrebounded the Knights 37-23, including 10-4 on the offensive glass leading to a 17-3 advantage in second-chance points. The Knights fell to 0-5 for the first time since 2021-22, when they ultimately turned their season around en route to an ASUN Championship.
 
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