I was very proud of my (alma mater) Bellarmine Knights last night when they made it to the Final Four of D-2 for the 3rd time in the last 5 years but lost on a 3 pointer to Florida Southern 79-76 with 8 seconds left. Bellarmine trailed early by 18 points, I think at 31-13. They closed the score to 38-34 at the half. The second half was up & down with the game being close the entire half. Both teams seemed to think of defense as an after thought. It was like us playing in 1976 going up & down. Fl. Southern had a kid shoot 5-5 on 3's off the bench in the first 8 minutes of the game. He finished 6-9 on 3's and I think had 23 points. Bellarmine won the rebounding game 44-24 but they made 20 turnovers whereas Fl. Southern only had 7. The game was on CBSsports at 9:30PM. In the first game Indiana (PA) came from 10 back to win. They were only rated #25 in the country in D-2. They beat Tarleton (TX) who was rated at #7. Fl. Southern was #1 and Bellarmine was #3 in the nation. I would think that Fl. Southern should win the final on Saturday but one never knows.
The officiating didn't seem too good. Steve Lappas said some calls were terrible. Bellarmine had momentum and went up by 5 with I believe with just under 5 minutes left. They called a foul on Fl. southern and the official scorer said it was the 5th on the player. Everyone else thought he only had 4. The refs spent 9 minutes at the scorer's table before deciding the guy only had 4 fouls. The delay was a joke. Even Scott Davenport the Bellarmine coach said they only had him for 4 fouls. An odd thing was the kid never came back into the game anyway. There was a charge called on Fl. Southern that definitely was not a charge in the last 5 minutes too. There was a 5 point play for Fl. Southern with I think about 4 minutes left. A kid hit a 3 and they called a contact foul away from the ball against Bellarmine for a 1 in 1 that was converted. A call earlier in the game was also called against Bellarmine when Fl. Southern made a basket and they got the ball back that time. With about 1:30 left Whitehead of Bellarmine their point guard drove to the basket and the kid guarding him turned completely to the side. The ref called a charge which Lappas and the other announcer called absurd. There was no way the kid was set as he was almost turning his body completely around when the contact took place. Anyway the game was exciting and Bellarmine had a large number of fans that traveled from Louisville to Evansville for the game. I was proud to have been a Bellarmine grad and the first (with my identical twin) 4 year varsity letter winner in cross country in the history of the school. My twin brother and I kept the shooting charts for both teams for the games in our first 2 years of college when Alex Groza was our head coach. Bellarmine and Linden both had great seasons and made it to their Final Four. They both came up short but gave me a little excitement. I just wish that our scarlet knights would give us some excitement and a return to the NCAA at some time in the years I might have left. I was grateful to Mike for calling me and telling me the game was on TV. I was planning to listen to the radio feed on the internet and thought only the Final game was to be on channel 2 on Saturday at 3PM. In 2011 I did go to the Final 4 and saw Bellarmine win the national championship in Springfield, Ma and also got to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame.
This post was edited on 3/27 8:49 AM by knights1212
The officiating didn't seem too good. Steve Lappas said some calls were terrible. Bellarmine had momentum and went up by 5 with I believe with just under 5 minutes left. They called a foul on Fl. southern and the official scorer said it was the 5th on the player. Everyone else thought he only had 4. The refs spent 9 minutes at the scorer's table before deciding the guy only had 4 fouls. The delay was a joke. Even Scott Davenport the Bellarmine coach said they only had him for 4 fouls. An odd thing was the kid never came back into the game anyway. There was a charge called on Fl. Southern that definitely was not a charge in the last 5 minutes too. There was a 5 point play for Fl. Southern with I think about 4 minutes left. A kid hit a 3 and they called a contact foul away from the ball against Bellarmine for a 1 in 1 that was converted. A call earlier in the game was also called against Bellarmine when Fl. Southern made a basket and they got the ball back that time. With about 1:30 left Whitehead of Bellarmine their point guard drove to the basket and the kid guarding him turned completely to the side. The ref called a charge which Lappas and the other announcer called absurd. There was no way the kid was set as he was almost turning his body completely around when the contact took place. Anyway the game was exciting and Bellarmine had a large number of fans that traveled from Louisville to Evansville for the game. I was proud to have been a Bellarmine grad and the first (with my identical twin) 4 year varsity letter winner in cross country in the history of the school. My twin brother and I kept the shooting charts for both teams for the games in our first 2 years of college when Alex Groza was our head coach. Bellarmine and Linden both had great seasons and made it to their Final Four. They both came up short but gave me a little excitement. I just wish that our scarlet knights would give us some excitement and a return to the NCAA at some time in the years I might have left. I was grateful to Mike for calling me and telling me the game was on TV. I was planning to listen to the radio feed on the internet and thought only the Final game was to be on channel 2 on Saturday at 3PM. In 2011 I did go to the Final 4 and saw Bellarmine win the national championship in Springfield, Ma and also got to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame.
This post was edited on 3/27 8:49 AM by knights1212
