NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Bellarmine men's basketball team heads to Tennessee for their final two regular season games, taking on Lipscomb Wednesday night and Austin Peay Friday night. Both games are scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and ESPN680.
 
Bellarmine (8-21, 4-10 ASUN) remains alive for a bid to the Atlantic Sun Championship next week thanks to a pair of home wins over Central Arkansas and North Alabama last week. The top 10 teams earn spots in the tournament and the Knights currently sit in 12^th place, one game back of 10th-place Jacksonville and a half-game back of 11^th-place Central Arkansas.
 
Of the teams the Knights can potentially match win totals with, Bellarmine (four wins, two games remaining) owns head-to-head tiebreakers over Jacksonville (five wins, two games remaining) and Kennesaw State (six wins, one game remaining). FGCU (six wins, two games remaining) and Queens (six wins, one game remaining) own head-to-head tiebreakers over BU. Central Arkansas (five wins, one game remaining) currently owns the tiebreaker over Bellarmine via their win against Lipscomb. Should Lipscomb defeat Bellarmine and Jacksonville defeat Stetson (also Wednesday), then BU would be eliminated from conference tournament contention.
 
Lipscomb (18-11, 9-5 ASUN) enters Wednesday in third place in the ASUN while Austin Peay (15-14, 8-6 ASUN) checks in one game behind them and tied with North Florida in fourth place, though the APSU holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over UNF. Lipscomb ended APSU's five-game winning streak on Saturday, 90-85. Both Lipscomb's Will Pruitt and APSU's Dezi Jones scored 30 points in the contest. Pruitt went 13-for-16 from the field and 4-for-5 from three while Jones finished 11-for-19 and 3-for-7 from deep.
 
The trip to Tennessee will be the Knights' second go-round with the ASUN's Tennessee residents.
 
The Bisons earned an 81-70 win over Bellarmine in a three-point-shooting clinic on Jan. 6 at Freedom Hall. BU hit 11-of-26 threes, but Lipscomb bested them, hitting 14-of-33. Junior guard Joe Anderson led the way with 19 points, going 5-for-7 from three. Junior guard A.J. McGinnis went 4-for-8 from deep and finished with 14 points.
 
Two days prior, Bellarmine dropped their ASUN opener to Austin Peay 84-68. Bellarmine shot a higher percentage from the field (44.8 percent to 41.5 percent) and beyond the three-point line (44.4 percent to 37.5 percent) than the Govs, but the difference was APSU's 12 made threes to BU's eight and an 18-8 advantage for the Govs at the free throw line. Senior guard Dezi Jones scored a game-high 21 points for Austin Peay while Peter Suder scored 20 for the Knights.
 
As a team, Lipscomb is second in the ASUN in team offense, averaging 82.1 points per game, but ninth in team defense, giving up 76.9 points. They shoot the best percentage as a team both overall (49.5 percent) and from three (37.1 percent) in the league.
 
Princeton, Ky., native Derrin Boyd leads Lipscomb, averaging 17.6 points and shooting a team-best 44.0 percent from three. The sophomore guard also leads all ASUN guards shooting 52.6 percent from the field. Pruitt is the Bisons' second leading scorer at 14.2 PPG. Anderson, despite his inflated point total the first time around against the Knights, is known more for defense and his distributing. The junior guard is second in the league averaging 1.9 steals and fourth averaging 4.5 assists.
 
"Lipscomb is a tremendously well coached, fundamentally sound basketball team that plays a winning style of basketball," said Bellarmine head coach Scott Davenport. "It starts with a great backcourt that scores at all three levels and does a great job of team offense. They involve everyone. Defensively they defend the ball and force difficult shots."
 
Friday, the Knights will have to deal with the best team defense in the ASUN as APSU is holding opponents to 70.7 points, while their offense is eighth in the league at 72.2 points. Senior guard DeMarcus Sharp is sixth in the ASUN averaging 17.3 points, but also leads the conference averaging 2.2 steals and is eighth averaging 6.9 rebounds.
 
"Austin Peay does a great job of controlling the tempo of the game," said Davenport. "They are very precise on offense resulting in excellent scoring opportunities inside and on the perimeter. We must defend them starting with their excellent guard play and allow our defense to generate our offense."
 
Austin Peay hosts conference leader Eastern Kentucky Wednesday before the Knights visit.
 
For Bellarmine, sophomore guard Ben Johnson finished coming off a team-high 18 points and four assists against North Alabama. The former Kentucky Mr. Basketball has hit three or more threes in six of his last seven games, averaging 18.0 points in those six games.
 
Langdon Hatton is shooting 55.6 percent from the field over his last 13 games, averaging 13.8 points. The junior forward has been held to single-digit points just twice in that span. He is also 13-for-35 (37.1 percent) from three this season after attempting just two and making one last season.
 
Bellarmine is 7-5 all-time against Lipscomb, but 2-4 since joining the ASUN, and 1-1 at Allen Arena. The Knights are 7-12 all-time against APSU, 1-1 since joining the ASUN. BU's win over APSU last season was the first matchup between the schools since 1974.
 
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