LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Bellarmine men's basketball team will close out the home portion of their regular season schedule with games at Freedom Hall Thursday against Central Arkansas and Saturday against North Alabama for Senior Day.
 
"We will salute a tremendous group of Bellarmine basketball seniors prior to our game against North Alabama," said Bellarmine head coach Scott Davenport. "Three of the five senior players have the option to return next year. The group of five at this year's graduation will have earned eight Bellarmine degrees with three more on the way!"
 
The five senior Knights to be honored Saturday are forward Eli Roberts and guards Zac Jennings, Alec Pfriem, Garrett Tipton and Bash Wieland.
 
"The Ohio connection of Garrett (six years), Alec (five years) and Bash (five years) by the end of the spring semester will have earned six degrees with a second degree to come for Bash," said Davenport, noting that Wieland has elected to return for a sixth year. "On the court, they are winners! They, along with Eli and Zac, have played key roles in year one as a Division I program taking us to the last game of the league season for the ASUN championship. In year two, they won the ASUN Tournament. Their accomplishments on and off the floor will provide them bright futures. Others will score and rebound, but as teammates and fine young men they will be very difficult to replace."
 
"Zac and Eli entered Bellarmine together our first year as a Division I institution and have been the pillars of our transition," Davenport added. "Their work ethic and dedication has established a very high level of expectation for everyone in our program on and off the court."
 
Also being honored with the senior players will be a pair of senior managers: Evan Herr and Bryce Hutchins.
 
"Senior managers Byrce Hutchins and Even Herr, both proud Hoosiers from Greenville and Evansville, respectively, have been major contributors to the success of Bellarmine basketball, especially in the transition to Division I," said Davenport. "They have met every challenge in terms of travel, providing for everyone and demonstrating incredible attention to detail. They are tremendous future leaders."
 
Additionally, on Thursday night, Seth Walsh will be introduced as the sixth man in Bellarmine's starting lineup. The young Knight is celebrating two years in remission this week. Seth was "signed" to Bellarmine's roster during the summer of 2022 through Team IMPACT, a national non-profit organization that matches children facing serious illnesses and disabilities with college athletic teams across the country.
 
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Bellarmine (6-21, 2-10 ASUN) is clinging to their chances of participating in the Atlantic Sun Championship the week of March 5. They cannot be eliminated on Thursday should they defeat Central Arkansas (9-20, 5-8 ASUN), but a loss to UCA and a win by Kennesaw State over Florida Gulf Coast would end the Knights' chances of playing in the conference tournament. Should Bellarmine and Kennesaw State both lose, Bellarmine would remain alive until Kennesaw State meets Stetson Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. A win by the Owls over the second-place Hatters would spell the end of the line for Bellarmine before they take the floor Saturday afternoon against North Alabama (13-14, 7-6 ASUN).
 
"I am, first and foremost, thankful to coach against a healthy Coach Boone," said Davenport speaking on UCA. "He has done tremendous job on the court coming off his personal health challenges from last year. I am very pleased because he is a true credit to the coaching profession and the game of college basketball."
 
Bears head coach Anthony Boone missed nearly the entire ASUN portion of the Bears' schedule last season following an emergency heart procedure, but returned in time for the start of the 2023-24 season.
 
"His squad has quality depth and balance," added Davenport. "They have grown through experience and are playing their best basketball of the year. Six players averaging between eight and 14 points per game challenges us to defend as a team."
 
Forward Tucker Anderson paces UCA offensively, sitting at 14^th in the ASUN averaging 13.8 points per game while forward Glory Etim is third in the conference averaging 7.5 rebounds. UCA is coming off consecutive home losses to Austin Peay and Lipscomb and is currently in a four-way tie in the win column for seventh in the ASUN.
 
North Alabama enters Thursday at sixth in the ASUN. They will visit Eastern Kentucky before heading to Louisville. UNA split their home games with Lipscomb and Austin Peay last week. They defeated Lipscomb 75-70 before APSU snapped their four-game home winning streak. Guard Jacari Lane is 12^th in the ASUN averaging 15.2 points per game and sixth averaging 4.0 assists. Forward Damian Forrest is second in the conference averaging 7.9 rebounds.
 
"North Alabama comes in with a veteran squad of a graduate, four seniors and two juniors playing quality minutes with their leading scorer, Jacari Lane," said Davenport. "Their starting back court of Lane and KJ Johnson live at the free throw line having taken 63.2% of their team's total free throws in ASUN play. As a team they do a great job creating second-chance points and scoring opportunities."
 
The Knights dropped consecutive road contests to UNA and the UCA on January 11 and 13, respectively.
 
It was a battle until the finish at Central Arkansas in the teams' first matchup. BU trailed UCA 59-56 with three seconds left when UCA opted to foul while up three to send Pfriem to the line. Pfriem hit the first freebie and intentionally missed the second. Langdon Hatton was able to get a hand on the rebound and tried to tip it in, but hit the front of the rim. Peter Suder gathered Hatton's miss and found Tipton waiting for a potential game-tying shot at the top of the key, but Tipton misfired left at the buzzer as the Bears won 59-57.
 
Two days prior at North Alabama, Bellarmine was red hot from the field in the first half and led by three at the break. BU never really found a rhythm in the second half, however, especially from behind the arc where they went just 2-for-13. Meanwhile, UNA gathered eight offensive rebounds off their 14 misses and scored 12 second-chance points on their way to a 69-53 win.
 
Tickets for both games are available through Ticketmaster. ESPN+ and ESPN680 will have live coverage of both games.
 
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