LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In their first home game at Knights Hall in 25 days, the Bellarmine men's basketball team battled back multiple times, but ultimately came up short against visiting Jacksonville 74-59.
 
The Dolphins led 11-2 early and started the game on a 13-5 run before Tyler Doyle netted Bellarmine's first field goal with a floater in the lane with just under seven minutes gone by.
 
A running, buzzer-beating three by Dezmond McKinney at the first-half horn kept the Knights within 10 at 38-28 at the break despite Jacksonville controlling the flow for much of the opening stanza.
 
Dolphins guard Robert McCray, the seventh-leading scorer in the ASUN, was held in check in the first half, scoring just four points on 2-of-7 shooting.
 
Bellarmine would bring strong energy out of the locker room in the second, quickly cutting their deficit down to four at 38-34 after back-to-back threes by Jack Karasinski and Ben Johnson.
 
A 12-5 run by JU opened things back up a some before the Knights clawed their way back once again.
 
Karasinski, who did not register a field goal in the first half, came out aggressively in the second half with 11 early points, including five points of an 8-0 Knights run to help get Bellarmine to within three at 50-47.
 
The Knights would continue to hang around as a pair of threes on consecutive possessions by Johnson twice cut the Dolphins lead to two at 52-50 and then 55-53 with 11:12 left, but a 10-2 Jacksonville run from that point began to slowly ice the Knights.
 
After a nearly four-minute scoreless spell by both teams, McCray bounced a three high off the rim and in and followed that with a steal and slam to put Jacksonville up 70-57 with 3:06 left. The Preseason All-ASUN selection finished with 15 points and five assists as JU went on to win by a 15-point margin.
 
Karasinski finished with 14 points to lead the Knights while Johnson tallied 11, hitting 3-of-8 three-point attempts. McKinney had a solid showing off the bench with seven points, four rebounds, five assists and three steals.
 
Bellarmine shot 39.6 percent to the game, not too far behind Jacksonville's 44.3 percent, but the Dolphins were able to get off 13 more field goal attempts than the Knights as they outrebounded Bellarmine 39-26 and committed five fewer turnovers.
 
Bellarmine faces another team out of Duval County, Fla., on Saturday when North Florida visits Knights Hall for a 6:30 p.m. ET tipoff.
 
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