FORT MYERS, Fla. – Facing a Florida Gulf Coast team playing for seeding in next week's ASUN Championship, the Bellarmine men's basketball team dropped their season finale 80-61 Wednesday night at Alico Arena.
 
The Knights weathered a hot start by the Eagles as FGCU used a 15-2 run that included three threes by Dallion Johnson to race out to a 19-6 lead. The teams would mostly trade buckets the rest of the half, but Bellarmine would inch back in with runs of 6-0 and 8-0 to trail 42-34 at the break.
 
In the first half, Bellarmine sank five threes, including rare triples by Dezmond McKinney (2 for 5 on the season before Wednesday), Tyler Doyle (7 for 28) and Curt Hopf (7 for 45).
 
Three runs would define the game in the second half. FGCU came out of the break on an 11-1 run to take a 53-35 lead, before Bellarmine answered right back with an 11-2 run to cut their deficit to nine at 55-46.
 
That would be as close as Bellarmine would cut into FGCU's advantage as the Eagles went on a 14-4 run that started with two more threes by Johnson to build a 19-point lead at 69-50 before closing out the game for an 80-61 final.
 
Myles Watkins led Bellarmine with 13 points. It was the first time he led the team outright in scoring this season. The game was also the first since January 4 at Central Arkansas in which just one Knight reached double-digit points.
 
Billy Smith had an off shooting night, going 3 for 12 and finishing with six points. Still, he concludes his junior season with 420 points, matching Garrett Tipton's total from 2022-23 for the third-most in a single season in Bellarmine's Division I era. He also posted career highs with his .445 field goal percentage and .387 three-point percentage. He now has 762 points in his career between Bellarmine and his one season at Miami (OH).
 
Jack Karasinski scored a season-low five points in 15 minutes, but ends his first season on Newburg Road leading the team averaging 15.4 points per game.
 
Doyle scored eight points on 3-for-8 shooting and closes his freshman campaign with a .551 field goal percentage, the second-best mark in Bellarmine's D-I era, percentage points better than Hopf's .551 during his freshman season of 2021-22.
 
For the Eagles, Johnson scored 26 points on 9-for-18 shooting, 8-for 13 from deep, to match his career high set against Bellarmine in January when he also hit eight threes. Keeshawn Kellman poured in 20 on 9-for-13 shooting.
 
The Eagles won the battle on the glass 42-22 and outscored the Knights in second-chance points 15-0. They also went 13 for 26 from beyond the arc (.500) to Bellarmine's 7 for 24 (.292).
 
Bellarmine finishes their fifth D-I season 2-16 in the ASUN, 5-26 overall.
 
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