NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When Bellarmine and Lipscomb first locked up in January, it was an entertaining three-point shooting display from both sides. Wednesday night, Lipscomb repeated that effort while Bellarmine fell short in a 90-74 loss at Allen Arena.
 
Bellarmine (8-22, 4-11 ASUN) dominated the paint, outscoring Lipscomb (19-11, 10-5 ASUN) 44-30, but Lipscomb's hot shooting from outside was too much for the Knights to handle. Bellarmine hit just 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) from three while Lipscomb lit it up from the outside, hitting 13-of-20 (65.0 percent) from deep.
 
Despite the loss, Bellarmine remains alive in their hopes for a bid to the Atlantic Sun Championship with one game to play thanks to Stetson's 86-73 win over Jacksonville. The only scenario that will see the Knights make it to the tournament is a win over Austin Peay on Friday paired with a Florida Gulf Coast win over Jacksonville and a North Alabama win over Central Arkansas. That would put BU, JU and UCA in a three-way tie for the 10^th and final seed. Bellarmine would own the tiebreaker over JU and UCA thanks to their 2-1 combined record against them.
 
Senior guard Bash Wieland continued his strong production with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting while grabbing a game-high eight rebounds. Junior forward Langdon Hatton finished with 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Sophomore guard Ben Johnson finished with 17 points and was responsible for two of the Knights' four made threes.
 
It was a slow start offensively for both teams. After Bellarmine jumped out to an 8-6 lead, nearly four minutes passed before the next point was scored and nearly four-and-a-half minutes passed between field goals.
 
The scoring, however, opened up over the final 12 minutes of the first half. Bellarmine made 10 of their final 18 shots while Lipscomb cashed in nine of their final 14 shots to take a 35-30 lead into the break. The Knights did not hit a three in the first stanza, finishing 0-for-7.
 
The teams traded buckets to start the second, but Lipscomb was able to build their lead with an onslaught from beyond the arc. The Bisons missed their first shot before hitting six straight, five of which were threes. Bellarmine hit their first four shots and Johnson finally hit their first three with just over four minutes gone in the second, but Lipscomb won the first segment of the second half 20-13 to go up 55-43.
 
Bellarmine battled back to get it to 67-61 before Lipscomb went on a 10-0 run to expand their lead to 77-61. The Bisons hit eight of their last nine shots to put away the Knights.
 
Lipscomb's Will Pruitt followed up his 30-point performance against Austin Peay with 27 points against Bellarmine. He nailed 5-of-6 threes and 8-of-13 overall. A.J. McGinnis added 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting, 3-of-6 from three.
 
Bellarmine closes the regular season with their ASUN Tournament hopes on the line Friday night at Austin Peay (15-14, 8-6 ASUN). ESPN+ and ESPN680 will have the coverage.
 
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