Chad Jackson battles for a rebound against Bellarmine on Monday night.
Box score
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A late comeback by Northern Kentucky University fell just short Monday night during a 64-60 loss at defending NCAA Division II national champion Bellarmine.
NKU, which entered the game ranked No. 8 in the Division II poll, made just 29.6 percent of its shots in the first half and trailed by 12 points (33-21) at the break. No. 3 Bellarmine, meanwhile, sizzled the nets for 59.1 percent shooting during the opening 20 minutes in front of a sellout crowd in Knights Hall.
Jeremy Kendle led Bellarmine with 16 points, while Chris Dowe scored 15. Dowe also made a pair of free throws with 9.1 seconds remaining to give the Knights a 64-60 advantage, right after
Chad Jackson had brought NKU within a basket four seconds earlier.
“We had some good looks at the basket, but nothing seemed to go in during the first half,” NKU head coach
Dave Bezold said. “You shoot 29 percent against a great team like Bellarmine, that spells trouble. We made a great comeback in the second half, but we fell too far behind a veteran team on its home floor.”
NKU opened the second half with a 10-0 run to pull within a basket (33-31) on
Tony Rack's 3-pointer. Bellarmine countered and eventually built a 55-42 advantage on a Keisten Jones trey with 8:05 left on the clock.
Bellarmine still owned a 10-point lead with just more than three minutes left, but a pair of
Jon Van Hoose 3-pointers sandwiched around a Stretch Watson dunk made it a 60-56 game with 49 seconds left.
Dowe extended the Bellarmine lead to 62-56 with a pair of free throws, but
Ethan Faulkner scored with 29 seconds remaining to make it 62-58. Jones was fouled and missed the front end of the bonus, and Jackson's basket brought the Norse within 62-60 with 13.8 seconds left. But Dowe ended the comeback by draining two more foul shots, giving Bellarmine its sixth consecutive win over NKU.
Van Hoose led NKU with 14 points, while Watson added 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Norse shot 42.1 percent from the field – 53.3 percent in the second half - but were just 6-for-24 from 3-point range. NKU entered the game as the nation's top 3-point shooting team.
Bellarmine improved to 14-1 overall, 6-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. NKU dropped to 13-2 overall, 5-2 in the GLVC. The Norse are now 53-127 all-time against nationally ranked opponents.
Bellarmine has won eight of the past nine meetings with NKU. The Norse still hold a 43-36 lead in the all-time series against the Knights.
NKU plays host to Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
