FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Bellarmine men's basketball team heads to the Sunshine State this weekend for a Saturday showdown with Florida Gulf Coast.
 
A win for Bellarmine (6-19, 2-8, ASUN) over FGCU (10-15, 4-6 ASUN) would go a long way in helping the Knights secure a spot in the Atlantic Sun Tournament. The top 10 teams in the ASUN receive a bid to the tournament and Bellarmine currently sits in 12^th place, two games behind FGCU, who is in a four-way tie for seventh place with six games to play. Jacksonville, whom Bellarmine owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over, is one game ahead of the Knights in 11^th place.
 
The Knights have yet to taste defeat against the Eagles since joining the ASUN. Bellarmine has won five straight games to begin the series, which started with the 2020-21 season, by an average margin of 15 points. FGCU was BU's first victim on their path to the 2022 ASUN championship title.
 
Last season, the Knights forced the Eagles into 18 turnovers and held them to 30.4 percent shooting in a 61-41 win at Freedom Hall. The closest game in the series came the last time these teams met at Alico Arena on Jan. 29, 2022. Bellarmine won 74-63 behind 23 points from CJ Fleming and 20 points from Dylan Penn.
 
Sophomore guard Ben Johnson scored a game-high 28 points the Knights' last time out Wednesday against Stetson. It was the highest total for any Knight in ASUN play and his third 20-plus point performance of the season, tied with senior guard Bash Wieland for most on the team.
 
Wieland added 17 points for the second straight game. He is averaging 19.0 points per game in six games since returning from a broken left pinkie and has scored in double digits in 11 straight games.
 
The Knights will be up against an FGCU team who is fourth in the ASUN in field goal percentage as a team at 45.3 percent, though they are next-to-last scoring 70.9 points per game.
 
"They have great inside and outside scoring with 39 percent of their field goal attempts being from beyond the three-point line," said Bellarmine head coach Scott Davenport.
 
Senior guard Isaiah Thompson, junior forward Zach Anderson and junior guard Dallion Johnson lead the outside attack. As a group, they shoot 40.7 percent from three, led by Anderson's 49.4 percent clip.
 
A Purdue transfer, Thompson leads the Eagles averaging 13.9 PPG, though he missed all of December due to injury.
 
Senior forward Keeshawn Kellman is the Eagles' big threat on the inside. He is shooting 68.0 percent from the field, second in the nation. He is eighth in the ASUN averaging 6.6 rebounds, to boot.
 
"Defensively, very simply, they don't allow second shots, only allowing seven offensive rebounds per game in ASUN play," Davenport added.
 
On the season as a whole, FGCU allows just 9.4 offensive rebounds per game, best in the ASUN.
 
Despite coming into their contest with Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday night surrendering the third-fewest points per game in the conference, the Eagles allowed the Colonels to shoot 60.4 percent from the field and 55.0 from three as EKU won 90-82.
 
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