LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport has seen this script before. In fact, he's written a few versions of it. A plucky, well-coached, good-shooting and fundamentally sound Division II team takes on a Division I opponent in an exhibition game and scares the daylights out of them.
The difference on Thursday night in Freedom Hall – it wasn't Bellarmine playing the role. Tiffin did everything you need to do to score an upset. It made 16 three-pointers and forced 16 turnovers.
But Bellarmine stayed calm, kept executing, shot nearly 60% itself and emerged with a 90-87 victory before a crowd of 1,313 in the first exhibition of the college basketball season in Kentucky.
Dylan Penn and Ethan Claycomb scored 19 points each to lead the Knights, who put four players in double-figures and made 20-of-24 second-half free throws.
"It's one for the ages," Davenport said. "Get outscored 30 points from the three-point line and still win, it's almost mathematically impossible."
Almost.
Tiffin took twice as many threes (45) as it did twos (20) and made eight in each half. It grabbed an 11-point lead in the first dozen minutes to put the Knights on their heels, but Bellarmine never panicked. They trailed by seven at half, but steadily reeled in the dragons in the second half.
Davenport gave Tiffin credit for making a bunch of three-pointers, but he's worried about his team's defense as it enters an early-season stretch against the likes of No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 2 UCLA, No. 7 Purdue, West Virginia and others.
"You've got to give them a lot of credit," he said. "They made them. . . . We were excited about playing. We practiced great up to it. The bottom line is they made 16 threes, and it wasn't like they were breaking them in. Now, how many were off the bounce? How many were off the catch? And we'll teach accordingly. But I know right now, the vast majority were off the catch. The numbers don't lie. When you make them put the ball on the ground, the numbers go down dramatically. We teach that. … The last time we were on this court, Liberty went 15 for 25 from three. And you can say, well, they had an unbelievable night. Wait a minute. First time, I'll buy that. Second time, I'm not buying it."
Bellarmine got 12 points from C.J. Fleming and 10 points and 7 rebounds from Justin Betz. Penn also dished out five assists and Bellarmine had 19 as a team.
"We did shoot 59%," Davenport said. "But they get 13 more shots than us because we turned it over 16 times. … The greatest weakness of a great shooting team is when you turn the ball over."
Davenport said the Knights will be back at work early Friday morning watching video.
"If there's ever been a film with the ability to teach from, it's this one," he said. ". . . You're never finished learning. I understand, these are veteran guys. They dug in, got critical stops, hit free throws, did all the critical things short of some unnecessary fouls. But when you're through learning, you're through. So that's what we'll work on tomorrow morning. I know this team too well. . . . We had our walk through today at 10 a.m., I started at 9:34. I could've started at 9:20. That's how ready they were. I'm not upset. But we've got to clean it up defensively."
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