LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Let's call this the audacity of luggage. The Bellarmine men's basketball team packed for the long haul before leaving for Saturday night's ASUN semifinal game at Liberty. They intended to win, and figured they might have to travel on to Jacksonville, Ala., for the tournament championship.
Forget that Liberty had never lost an ASUN Tournament game. Forget that Bellarmine was traveling 8 and a half hours after a 9 p.m. finish on Thursday to play at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Forget how good Liberty is at home.
Forget all that, because none of it mattered. The team that packed its bags to keep on playing will, in fact, keep on playing.
Bellarmine 53, Liberty 50.
The Knights will keep the odometer rolling on their 2021-22 season, but the only travel they'll have to do after Saturday's upset is back home – where they will face Jacksonville at 5 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN2 for the ASUN championship -- after the Dolphins knocked off Jacksonville State in the other semifinal.
The trip back to Louisville will roll the season's mileage total over 17,000,
After the game, Davenport said he said only two words to his team, "Thank you."
I'm not sure I believe Davenport could confine himself to two words, but I know that gratitude is the real thing. I texted him after the game. This was his response.
Scott Davenport's text reply to Eric Crawford after beating Liberty in the ASUN semifinals.
How hungry is this group to keep going? They were scheduled to have a 10 a.m. film session on Friday after Thursday night's 9 p.m. finish and subsequent treatment. Every player was in the gym and ready to go by 9:15. Video started early. The bus left early.
The big takeaway from this is that, for programs reclassifying from Division II to Division I, this stuff just doesn't happen. Bellarmine is playing for an ASUN tournament championship for a second straight season.
One more win would be No. 20 for the Knights, who opened their season on the road against five teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25.
The team that packed for success this weekend, found it. And a group of five seniors who desperately want to keep playing together keeps finding a way. It's not surprising. The group will leave Bellarmine with a combined eight college degrees later this spring.
When they found out the bus was headed home: pic.twitter.com/3ViVv2c15M
— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) March 6, 2022
"That was an epic college basketball game," Davenport said. "I’m not saying it was a thing of beauty. But in terms of playing the game from a respect level, It was incredible."
Bellarmine shot to a 14-2 lead at the start, then went scoreless for 9 minutes. Liberty countered with a run and led 23-18 at halftime. A quick start in the second half put them up 10 after a 3-pointer by ASUN player of the year Darius McGhee made it 31-21 two minutes into the half.
The Knights responded. Three straight points by Ethan Claycomb. Back-to-back layups by Dylan Penn, the first off an offensive rebound by CJ Fleming, the second off a steal and assist by Juston Betz. Within 90 seconds, Bellarmine had its deficit down to three, and 30 seconds after that it was tied on a 3-pointer by Penn.
From that point on, the largest lead by either team was 5. In the final 8:31, it was a single-possession game the entire way. Neither team led by more than 3.
A steal by Betz with 28 seconds left was the key. Off of that, Claycomb made two free throws to put Bellarmne up 3. Following a Liberty score, Fleming made two more, and McGhee's late heave from three bounced off.
In the second half, Penn and Fleming combined for 27 of Bellarmine's 35 points. Coached by a former Tony Bennett assistant, Liberty's pack line defense thwarts the beautiful game Bellarmine likes to play. On Saturday, they had only 7 assists as a team. But the win still was a thing of beauty for their coach. One game after making 15 three-pointers, Bellarmine was back to its bread and butter – attacking the lane, with Penn making acrobatic shots with either hand.
“That was a tough one. Really thought Bellarmine played a heck of a game and deserved to win,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. “I love this group. Our guys are unbelievable individuals, unbelievable workers, selfless in nature and no better example of that than the guy to my right [McGhee]. I’m disappointed we don’t get to go back to the NCAA Tournament, but proud of our group and their effort tonight and this season.”
Bellarmine may go on to do bigger games this season. But it may not play another game that players remember more 20 years from now than the one they played Saturday night at Liberty.
"Experience teaches you as these games go up, and teams are more and more familiar, things tend to get a little more conservative, because the stakes increase," Davenport said. "But the way the game started, I thought it was going to be a shootout. And then game changes to a possession-type game. I think it's a credit to both teams' defense. I don't think it was by design. I know it wasn't on our end. I think it's just a credit to their defense that we had to match that with defense on our end."
And the Knights, who still aren't eligible for NCAA Tournament play because of their reclassification, are one win at home away from securing an NIT bid.
They are, for all practical purposes, Louisville's team when it comes to Division I postseason basketball this season. They deserve a groundswell of support at Freedom Hall on Tuesday. Bellarmine and Jacksonville met once in the regular season with the Knights pulling out a 73-70 overtime victory in Freedom Hall.
"We can't play in the tournament, but we can still play for a league championship and an NIT bid," Penn said. "That's something we can't control. But we can control our effort, our energy, going into this game on Tuesday. And that's what we're looking forward to. You know, we just transitioned from Division II to Division I. And as coach says, this isn't normal. A lot of teams don't make this transition the way we have. So we really want to go out there and compete and show everybody we belong at this level."
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