EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Third-ranked Bellarmine shook off a sluggish start and blew past King (Tenn.) 84-71 on Saturday night in the Bill Joergens Memorial Classic at Southern Indiana's Physical Activities Center.
Bellarmine tied a school record with 15 3-pointers on the night to match the output of King treys. However, the Knights needed just 28 attempts from beyond the arc while the Tornado pulled the trigger 41 times from downtown.
The Knights recorded yet another hot-shooting game finishing 27 of 47 from the field for 57.4 percent. Leading the way was senior Keisten Jones, who recorded 22 points and was a perfect 7 of 7 from the field, including three from long range. He now has 998 career points, needing just two to become Bellarmine's 35th 1,000-point scorer.
Rusty Troutman finished with a career high 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting, and Vance Hall and Josh Derksen also hit double digits with 12 and 11 points respectively.
The Knights had 21 assists on the 27 made baskets. Twelve Bellarmine players saw action and nine had at least one assist.
The Knights improve to 4-0 on the season while King falls to 2-4, with three of its losses coming at the hands of top-20 teams.
Arkansas Tech 58, No. 6 Midwestern State 57
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. -- Bobby Hatchett led all players with 16 points, Bryson Fletcher went 4-for-4 with 14 points, and Marshawn Arnold had five points with six rebounds as the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys fought off a 14-point deficit in the second half to win 58-57 against the No. 6 Midwestern State Mustangs on Saturday in Tucker Coliseum.
The Wonder Boys tied the game at 47-47 with 7:17 to go but the Mustangs made another push and increased their lead to 57-49 with just 4:12 remaining. Another layup from Fletcher, followed by a three-pointer from Darrick Little, brought the score to 57-54 with Midwestern State on top and 3:35 to play in the game.
No one scored until until Hatchett went to the free-throw line and made them both to make it 57-56. Tech got the defensive stop they needed and with 1.4 seconds to play, the Mustangs sent Hatchett back to the free-throw line. Hatchett needed to make them both to take the lead and he did just that as Tech went on to win 58-57.
The Wonder Boys shot 42.4 percent (14-33) from the field while Midwestern State shot 41.5 percent (22-53) on 20 more shots. Tech's discipline and ability to get to the charity stripe made the difference in the game as they hit 28 of 38 free throws while sending the Mustangs to the line just eight times (5-8). Hatchett made 10 of 12 from the free-throw line.
"I'm proud of the way we kept on battling," Wonder Boys head coach Doug Karleskint said. "For a while we just couldn't get over that hump, but eventually we did and came away with a huge victory."
