CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Bellarmine men's basketball team will spend Thanksgiving week on the road for three games.
 
The Knights (1-4, KenPom No. 310) first visit Charleston to face The Citadel at McAlister Field House on Monday at 7 p.m. ET for their second game arranged by the ASUN/SoCon scheduling alliance. Doug Davenport's group will remain in the Holy City to play Houston Christian in a neutral site match at McAlister on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. Finally, Bellarmine on Saturday will head to DeKalb, Ill., to battle Northern Illinois at 3 p.m. ET (2 p.m. CT). The games against The Citadel and NIU can be seen on ESPN+ and all three are available on ESPN 680/105.7 and ESPNLouisville.com.
 
About The Citadel
The Citadel (2-3, KenPom No. 348) suffered a 100-92 loss in their first ASUN/SoCon game at West Georgia on November 14. Also like the Knights, the Bulldogs are looking for their first win over a Division I program this season. They defeated Division II North Greenville, where Knights forward Michael Wilson Jr. played his freshman season last year, their last time out on Wednesday, 70-57.
 
Redshirt sophomore guard Christian Moore leads The Citadel with his 12.6 points and .464 three-point percentage. Senior forward Sola Adebisi, in his second year at The Citadel after two seasons at Florida State, paces the Bulldogs averaging 6.0 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks.
 
As a team, The Citadel shoots .450 (213th nationally) and allows opponents to shoot .477 (318th). Where the Bulldogs excel, however, is taking care of the ball—they are 10th in the nation and 2nd in the SoCon averaging just 8.6 giveaways per game.
 
The Bulldogs went 5-25 a season ago. They are led by Ed Conroy in the fourth season of his second stint as head coach at The Citadel (2006-10, 2022-present). He is 77-147 overall at his alma mater.
 
Monday's game will be the first between Bellarmine and The Citadel.
 
About Houston Christian
Houston Christian (3-1, KenPom No. 285), of the Southland Conference, owns one win over a Division I opponent, having taken down Louisiana-Monroe (KenPom No. 360) at home on November 13, 72-61. The Huskies took down NCCAA College of Biblical Studies Houston 85-67 on Thursday.
 
HCU preaches defense, ranking 16th nationally averaging 6.0 blocks and 29th averaging 10.5 steals—all while committing the third-fewest fouls per game at 12.5. The Huskies allow 69.0 points per game, 102nd in the country.
 
Graduate forward Trent Johnson leads HCU with 12.2 PPG while senior guard Kylin Green boasts a team-best 7.0 assists and 5.8 rebounds. Johnson and D'Aundre Samuels are the Huskies' outside threats, hitting nine and eight threes, respectively in 22 tries each. Junior forward Mambourou Mara, at 6'6", ranks 34th nationally averaging 2.3 blocks.
 
Craig Doty leads the Huskies in his second season after posting a 12-20 record in 2024-25.
 
The Knights and Huskies met once before on January 6, 1972, then as members of the NCAA College Division. Houston Baptist, as the school was formerly known, walked out of Knights Hall with a one-point win, 77-76.
 
About Northern Illinois
Northern Illinois' (3-3, KenPom No. 254) owns a pair of Division I triumphs this season, taking down ULM at home, 102-82, and Loyola Chicago on the road, 76-59, their last time out on Friday. They will visit Austin Peay on Tuesday before hosting Bellarmine on Saturday.
 
The Huskies rank 67th nationally with their .564 effective field goal percentage thanks to their .416 three-point percentage, good for 17th in the country.
 
Freshman forward Gustav Winther leads the MAC with his .808 field goal percentage (21-for-26). Junior guard Jao Ituka is 13-for-27 (.481) from deep. Junior forward Hassan Washington is 15-for-23 from the field (.652), including 6-for-10 from three (.600) to rank 5th in the MAC. Freshman guard Dylan Ducommun missed the first four games, but over the first two games of his collegiate career has hit 9 of 17 (.529) from deep and 13 of 25 (.520) from the field overall while scoring 36 points. The Switzerland native has also handed out 13 assists in two games.
 
Rashon Burno is in his fifth season leading NIU. The Huskies went 6-25 in 2024-25.
 
As with The Citadel, Bellarmine will be facing Northern Illinois for the first time.
 
Knights Knotes

• Jack Karasinski leads the ASUN averaging 20.3 points, though he did not play in the team's blowout win over Hanover. He has scored 23, 18, 23 and 17 in his four games. The senior is also averaging 5.3 rebounds after posting 2.8 per game in 2024-25.
• Brian Waddell is 7th in the ASUN in scoring at 15.2 per game and has already scored more points this season (76) than he did in three seasons at Purdue (43). He leads Bellarmine with his .609 field goal percentage and has sank 5 of 9 threes (.556).
• Despite the loss, Bellarmine's .543 shooting percentage Wednesday at Notre Dame was their best against a Division I opponent this season and their best since they shot .540 in an 80-74 win over Eastern Kentucky in February.
• Monday's game will be Bellarmine's first in South Carolina since suffering a 76-66 loss on November 18, 2022 at Clemson.
• Monday's game is also the second meeting of two Bellarmine games that are part of the ASUN-SoCon scheduling alliance. Bellarmine dropped their first game on November 15 when they hosted Wofford, 94-86. Bellarmine lost both games in the event last year, falling 76-71 at home against VMI and 86-74 on the road at Western Carolina. Additionally, Bellarmine hosts the SoCon's Chattanooga on December 17, though that is a return game following the Knights' visit to UTC during the 2023-24 season and was not arranged by the conferences.
• The Knights lead the ASUN and rank 55th nationally with their .496 field goal percentage. Bellarmine also ranks 2nd in the ASUN and 32nd nationally with their .781 free throw percentage. Still, the Knights are shooting .299 from three, which would be their lowest percentage since joining Division I for the 2020-21 season.

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