Bellarmine, Kentucky Wesleyan Earn Huge GLVC Wins

Top-ranked Bellarmine and No. 7 Kentucky Wesleyan each earned tough wins over top 10 opponents on Thursday night.

(1) Bellarmine 67 (8) Southern Indiana 53

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The No. 1 Bellarmine University men's basketball team fell behind in the early going, before rolling to a 67-53 victory over No. 8 Southern Indiana tonight in a Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup in sold out Knights Hall.

After committing a flurry of turnovers over the first several minutes, the Knights fell behind 14-7 just 6:01 into the contest. Bellarmine was able to adjust to the speed of the game and reeled off 13 unanswered points to pull ahead 20-14 and never trail again.

The first half comeback was punctuated with highlight reel play with a minute and a half remaining. Braydon Hobbs got a steal then sent it ahead to Jeremy Kendle, who fed Keisten Jones with a lob, and the sophomore from Ballard threw down a monstrous one-handed dunk to bring the sellout crowd to its feet.

In the second period, Bellarmine quickly established a 13-point lead, but the Screaming Eagles were able to slice the margin to just three at 42-39 at the 12:34 mark. The Knights answered with a 16-0 run to put the game away.

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(7) Kentucky Wesleyan 74 (9) Northern Kentucky 57

Kentucky Wesleyan obviously didn't get the memo that it wasn't supposed to win at Northern Kentucky on Thursday night.

The No. 7 Panthers, playing without injured senior guard Cardell McFarland — the leading scorer in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (21.1 ppg) — shot a sizzling 64 percent from the field in a dominant second half to stun the No. 9 Norse 74-57 at Highland Heights.

It was Northern's first loss in 12 games this season at the 9,400-seat Bank of Kentucky Center, and only the team's sixth loss in 56 games at the venue since it opened in 2008.

The Panthers improved to 16-2 overall and 8-2 in the GLVC, while NKU slipped to 15-3, 7-3.

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