BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS – The Bellarmine men’s basketball team claimed its second straight GLVC Championship on Sunday afternoon with an 87-81 overtime win against second-seeded Southern Indiana at Moloney Arena. With the win, the second-ranked Knights secured the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Senior forward Nick Holmes converted a three-point play with just under one minute in regulation to knot the score at 62-62 and force the extra session.
After the two teams exchanged baskets through the first three minutes of the overtime session Bellarmine (27-2) seized the lead and control of the game on back-to-back three-point baskets by Chris Dowe and Braydon Hobbs.
The two buckets gave the Knights a 77-72 lead with 1:04 to play and Bellarmine converted eight straight free throw conversions down the stretch to seal the win.
Bellarmine’s Justin Benedetti, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, paced the Knights in the second half as he scored his team’s first nine points after the break to help them to a 40-32 lead. He finished the game with 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting and added four rebounds and four assists.
Hobbs, who joined Benedetti on the All-Tournament Team, notched a double-double with 19 points and 10 assists and Dowe came off the bench to score a game-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting.
In all, five Knights reached double figures on the afternoon as the team shot 49.1 percent from the field. Bellarmine canned 21-of-22 free throws and shot 54.5 percent from the three-point line (12-22).
Behind Benedetti’s nine-point surge to open the second half, the Knights made a 12-2 run and took a 43-34 advantage on a Hobbs three-pointer with 12:37 to play.
Southern Indiana’s Mohammed Ntumba scored six of his team-high 20 points as the Eagles (24-5) roared back over the next three minutes. USI capped the run and tied the score at 47-47 with a pair of Kevin Gant free throws.
The teams traded buckets until Holmes managed to tie the game at the end of regulation.
The cleanly played first half featured five lead changes with Southern Indiana opening the contest on an 11-5 run highlighted by four points each by Ntumba and Hogg.
Bellarmine responded with a significant run of their own led by Chris Dowe off the bench who had seven points in the spurt including a bucket at the 5:10 mark to give the Knights a 26-20 advantage.
In addition to Benedetti, Hobbs and Ntumba, USI’s Brandon Hogg and Kentucky Wesleyan’s Anthony Young were also selected to the All-Tournament Team.
The NCAA Midwest Regional, in which Bellarmine and likely Southern Indiana will be competing, will begin on Saturday.