LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Down two of their top players, the Bellarmine men's basketball team needed a spark to get them going against Queens Thursday night in Knights Hall. They would get it in the form of a career-high 28 points from redshirt freshman
Kenyon Goodin.
The Knights, however, would fall to the Royals in overtime, 92-87.
Bellarmine was again without
Ben Johnson (11.9 PPG) for the ninth straight game.
Jack Karasinski (16.3 PPG) also missed his first game since December.
Goodin hit 8 of 9 shots, including going a perfect 5 for 5 from three-point range--the most made threes by a Knight without a miss in their Division I era.
Joining Goodin with big scoring performances were
Billy Smith with 21 points and
Tyler Doyle with a career-high 19 points. Doyle also grabbed a career-high eight rebounds, playing a career-high 39 minutes. Smith matched a career-high with six steals and added four assists.
Bellarmine weathered an early 10-0 run and 69.6 percent shooting by Queens in the first half to be within six at the break, 40-34. All told, the Royals were 6 for 10 from three and 10 for 13 inside the arc in the first, including four dunks by 7-footer Malcolm Wilson, though he would not score for the rest of the game.
The Knights would take on their fair share of adversity in the second half. Down 46-42 with 15:45 left, Goodin was called for a blocking foul while having a clearly established position on defense against Leo Colimerio, who lowered his shoulder and knocked Goodin over while making a move to the basket. The Bellarmine bench was whistled for a technical foul following the play. The Royals sank both free throws and then added a dunk by Nasir Mann to go up eight at 50-42.
Despite the unfortunate turn of events, the Knights responded with a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to two.
With 12:15 left, head coach
Scott Davenport was whistled for a technical foul following another defensive foul call with which the Knights disagreed. The Royals proceeded to score 11 straight points from there to cap a 13-0 run and build a 65-49 lead.
Bellarmine, however, would again respond—this time with a 19-3 run with that included eight points by Smith to tie the game at 68. The Royals did not do themselves any favors by missing three of four free throws during the six-minute stretch.
A layup by Goodin on a backdoor cut and a feed from Doyle would briefly give Bellarmine a 70-69 lead with 3:18 left, but Queens answered with five straight points on a Kalib Mathews jumper and a three by Mann to take a 74-70 lead.
Bellarmine battled back to take a 76-74 lead after a bucket by Doyle and a pair of free throws by
Landin Hacker, but the Royals were able to tie it with a layup by Yoav Berman with 7.0 seconds left, his first points of the game.
In the final possession of regulation, Smith would not be able to connect on a jumper and the putback attempt by
AJ Lux rolled painfully off the rim as time expired.
In overtime, Bellarmine would hold a brief lead at 79-78 after a deep three by Goodin. Still, Queens was able to rattle off an 8-4 run to take an 86-83 lead.
Then, with the Knights trailing 87-85, Berman appeared to walk after hauling in a long pass, but was instead fouled by Hacker to stop the clock with 15.0 seconds left. Berman sank both free throws before Smith would hit a layup to cut the Knights' deficit to one. After two more Queens free throws by Mathews, a full court pass by Goodin on an inbounds underneath sailed out of bounds at the other end. After a foul with 4.9 seconds left, Chris Ashby added two more freebies to give Queens a five-point lead to seal the win.
Ashby finished with a game-high 30 points on 7-for-13 shooting, all three-pointers, and hitting 9 of 10 at the line.
Queens shot 57.7 percent on the night to Bellarmine's 47.7 percent, both making nine threes. The teams were also even at 30 rebounds apiece.
Up next for Bellarmine, they host West Georgia in the first meeting between the programs on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET. The Knights will celebrate four players earning degrees for Senior Day, as well as homecoming.
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