With a chance to make history, Bellarmine basketball falls short of ASUN regular season championship.
The Bellarmine basketball 10-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of a hot Liberty shooting performance.
In a battle for the ASUN regular season title, Liberty came into Freedom Hall and shot lights out to win its third straight regular season title, 94-78
Liberty jumped out of the gate with the lead early. Although it was close early on, the Flames never allowed Bellarmine to even tie it up. With 5 minutes left in the half, Bellarmine basketball only trailed by four. Then, everything took a turn for the worse when the Flames went off on a 21-7 run capitalized by a dunk at the buzzer by Shiloh Robinson to increase the lead to 52-35.
Liberty continued to build the lead to as large as 20. With the Knights trailing 81-62 with 7:27 remaining, they flipped a switch and went on a 14-2 run to cut the deficit to 7 with 2:07 left.
Ultimately, the comeback effort fell short as the Flames knocked down free throws down the stretch to pull out the victory.
Take aways for Bellarmine basketball
The story of the game was Liberty’s three-point shooting. It seemed like every trip down the Flames would get a wide-open three. One of the reasons that the Flames got so many open looks was by pump faking and then either shooting or making a pass to a wide-open teammate.
As a team, they shot a ridiculous 60% from behind the arc led by star guard Darius McGhee who was 8-11. Additionally, Chris Parker was a perfect 3-3 from three-point range.
Even when the game looked out of reach, Bellarmine basketball never quit and was able to make it look competitive. Part of it was due to Liberty getting complacent, but the Knights deserve a lot of credit. The team never gave up and despite only shooting 25% from three, the shots were mostly good looks. The team continued to play their style of basketball that got them this far in the season and everybody played for each other.
While we are disappointed with the loss to Liberty, we can still celebrate the accomplishments of the regular season. Picked to finish last by the media before the season, they far exceeded any and all expectations to finish 2nd in year one of Division I. This, with a roster that was mostly recruited to play at the Division II level.
If the Knights continue to improve under Coach Scott Davenport, there’s no reason to doubt that they will be competing for the ASUN for years to come.
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Player of the Game
Darius McGhee was the star of the game and may have locked up ASUN Player of the Year honors. Despite only being 5’9”, he makes up for that with his quickness and sharpshooting ability. He poured in a career-high 34 points on 12-18 shooting including an insane 8-11 from behind the arc. McGhee also added 3 rebounds on the night.
Next Opponent
Despite not being eligible for the NCAA Tournament, the Knights are still allowed to compete in the ASUN Tournament.
Bellarmine basketball will be the 2 seed and will face Stetson on Thursday at 7 pm on ESPN+.
