LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It will be a Saturday afternoon pitting fierce former GLVC rivals together inside Knights Hall as Bellarmine and Northern Kentucky meet on the hardwood for the 82nd time. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. ET.
 
Bellarmine (4-5, NET No. 266) is 37-44 all-time against their visitors from Highland Heights, KY—just a 10-minute drive across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati.
 
The game will serve as Bellarmine's annual Camper Knight game. All students in 8th grade and under can receive free admission at the door. Adult tickets may be purchased here.
 
About Northern Kentucky
NKU (8-3, 1-1 Horizon, NET No. 181) enters fresh off a 92-53 victory over NAIA Brescia to give them wins in seven of their last eight. The Norse have already opened conference play in the Horizon League, disposing of Cleveland State 95-80 at home in Truist Arena last Wednesday before stumbling at Purdue Fort Wayne 79-77 on Saturday. The Norse were outscored 50-33 in the second half against PFW, a stanza that included a 20-0 Mastadon run to erase 25-point-plus performances by Dan Gherezgher and Kael Robinson. NKU's other losses were at No. 18 Tennessee and at East Tennessee State. NKU's best win was at home against NET No. 233 Wofford (93-83), who won at Bellarmine on November 15.
 
Offensively, the Norse rank 54th in scoring at 86.3 points per game and 62nd in effective field goal percentage at .560. A senior guard in his second year at NKU, Gherezgher paces NKU averaging 17.7 points and is one of their 3-point threats at .393 (35 for 84). Robinson is their top outside shooter at .466 (27-for-58), though he has taken 26 fewer threes than Gherezgher. LJ Wells is shooting a team-best .545 (48-for-88), including a .614 clip (43-for-70) from inside the arc. The senior forward is also NKU's top rebounder at 8.1 per game.
 
Defensively, NKU ranks 194th allowing 73.5 points per game, but 23rd averaging 10.1 steals and 15th averaging 16.7 turnovers forced. Wells (2.1 steals), Donovan Oday (2.0) and Tae Dozier (1.5) are each averaging better than one steal per game.
 
NKU is led by Darrin Horn in his seventh season (122-79). Horn previously held the top post at South Carolina (60-63 in four seasons) and his alma mater Western Kentucky (111-48 in five seasons). The Glasgow native lead the Hilltoppers to a Sweet 16 in 2008 before heading to the Palmetto State. Horn played prep ball at Tates Creek in Lexington, where the Commodores were the state runners-up in 1991.
 
Doug Davenport on NKU
"NKU has had a great start to the season, they have a ton of veteran players, they're very well coached and we're thrilled to embrace the challenge of welcoming them to Knights Hall. Our Camper Knight game is one of our favorite events of the year and we're looking forward to feeding off the extra energy the kids bring."
 
Versus the Norse
Bellarmine is 37-44 all-time against the Norse. The 81 contests are the seventh-most between Bellarmine and any opponent. The teams renewed their rivalry last year after an 11-year hiatus following NKU's transition to Division I and entrance into the ASUN for the 2012-13 season. (NKU remained in the ASUN for three seasons until joining their current home of the Horizon League for the 2015-16 season.) Last year, NKU grabbed 10 offensive rebounds leading to a 14-5 advantage in second-chance points and outscored Bellarmine in points off turnovers 18-3 en route to an 86-70 win at Truist Arena. Tyler Doyle and Jack Karasinski each scored 15. Wells is the leading returning scorer from that game for NKU, having dropped in four.
 
The Knights had taken the last seven games against the Norse at the Division II level, a stretch that included an 87-82 win in Knights Hall in the second round of the NCAA II Tournament en route to the 2011 DII national championship. No.3 Bellarmine defeated No. 8 NKU 64-60 the last time the teams met in Knights Hall on January 16, 2012.
 
Knights Knotes

• Bellarmine leads the ASUN and ranks 15th nationally with their .520 field goal percentage. They also lead the ASUN and rank 14th nationally with their .787 free throw percentage. Additionally, the Knights have raised their three-point field goal percentage from .294 after their first four games to .342 after going 38-for-99 (.384) over their last five games.
• Brian Waddell (25 points) and Jack Karasinski (21) combined to go 16-for-23 (.696) from the field and 4-for-8 from deep at Murray State on Saturday. It marked the second time this season two Knights had each scored 20-plus points in the same game—Waddell and Karasinski each scored 23 on November 15 against Wofford.
• Karasinski leads the ASUN and ranks 17th nationally averaging 20.9 points. His .588 FG% is also second in the ASUN behind Waddell and 50th nationally.
• Waddell leads the ASUN and is 15th nationally with his .663 field goal percentage. He is also 4th in the ASUN averaging 16.1 points. The redshirt senior set new career highs with 25 points and matched his career high with 6 rebounds against Murray State.
• Bellarmine's three-game winning streak was snapped by MSU. Bellarmine had won three straight games for the first time since December 2022 when they defeated Alice Lloyd (NAIA), Wabash (D3) and Murray State. BU has not won three straight games against Division I teams since going 3-0 in the 2022 ASUN Championship.
• With a win against NKU, Bellarmine would be 5-5 and at .500 or better after 10 games for the first time in their D1 era (since 2020-21). Bellarmine was last at .500 or better after 10 games in 2019-20, their final Division II season, when they started 14-0.

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