CONWAY, Ark. -- Bellarmine Knights men's basketball led for a good chunk of the way but were unable to close out, falling 71-65 on the road against the Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday afternoon.  With the loss, the Knights fall to 3-12 overall and 0-2 in ASUN conference play on the year.

It was the Billy Smith show early on for the Knights, as three early three-pointers from the junior guard gave Bellarmine an early 11-7 advantage.  UCA hit a three to cut it to one, but Jack Karasinski then began to pick up the slack, making a putback and finding the basket on a floater in the lane to up the Bellarmine lead to 15-10.  After UCA answered again with a triple, the Knights began to seize early control, preventing the Bears from making a shot from the field for nearly five minutes and using a 9-3 run that saw a three-pointer from Ben Johnson followed up by back-to-back threes from Landin Hacker to increase the lead to 24-16.  The remainder of the first half then became a game of runs, as a 5-0 UCA run was answered by five straight from the Knights courtesy of a Tyler Doyle three and a Johnson layup.  However, the Knights subsequently gave up a 9-3 run to UCA that cut their lead to just 31-30 at halftime.

After a tightly contested first five minutes of the second half that left the score tied at 37, a 10-2 Bellarmine run that was capped by five straight points from Smith allowed the Knights to match their largest lead of the contest at eight.  Following an exchange of baskets, the Knights offense went cold once again as the Bears used a 9-0 run to take a 52-49 lead with seven and a half minutes to play.  Baskets by Curt Hopf and Smith gave the Knights the lead back, but a UCA three-pointer gave the lead right back to the Bears.  After some more back-and-forth action, Bellarmine was unable to get over the hump, and a 6-0 UCA run made it 63-56 with just under a minute remaining.  The Knights made one final push in the last minute, as Dezmond McKinney hit a layup and was fouled, and the Knights were able to get an offensive rebound via a jump ball off of a subsequent missed McKinney free throw.  Johnson cut the lead to two with a three, but the Bears were then able to put it on ice at the free throw line.

Smith led the Knights with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting for his 11th double-digit effort of the season and his second 20+ point performance.  Smith's five three-pointers set a new season high.  Hacker, McKinney, Johnson, and Karasinski all contributed with eight points apiece.  McKinney, Karasinski, and Hopf all led the Knights with six rebounds apiece.  Karasinski also led the Knights with four assists.

Despite the loss, Bellarmine outscored UCA 28-22 in points in the paint and 18-4 in points off the bench.  The Knights as a team went 10-of-30 from three-point range, their seventh game hitting double-digit three pointers.  The Knights recorded 16 assists on 25 made shots from the field.

Up next, the Knights will return home to take on the

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