The fourth-ranked Bellarmine University women’s basketball team made a triumphant return to Great Lakes Valley Conference play on Thursday night at Knights Hall.
Senior forward Sarah Galvin, junior forward Beth Bowers and junior guard Raven Merriweather scored 14 points apiece as Bellarmine defeated Rockhurst 81-75.
Senior guard Whitney Hartlage added 12 points and senior guard Destony Curry chipped in 11 in a balanced effort from the Knights (11-1, 3-0 GLVC) that offset a game-high 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting from Mary Dineen of Rockhurst (8-3, 3-1), which saw its six-game winning streak snapped.
Bellarmine rebounded from its lone loss of the season, 88-83 to top-ranked Ashland. Midway through the fourth quarter, it appeared as if the Knights would coast to the win after building a 14-point lead, but they followed by missing two free throws and Rockhurst surged back to within 74-68 with 2:46 left. The Hawks could have trimmed it to four but missed a pair from the charity stripe.
After turning the ball over, Hartlage redeemed herself almost immediately by nailing a clutch 3-pointer. She then sank a pair of free throws as did Merriweather, a turnaround from the Ashland game in which missed opportunities from the charity stripe in the final period torpedoed a potential Knights comeback victory.
“I’m glad we won, but we have some work to do,” Bellarmine Coach Chancellor Dugan said.
Rockhurst boasted a better shooting percentage than Bellarmine – 45.5 to 41.9 – but the Knights forced the Hawks into 23 turnovers and scored 22 points off them. Led by Bowers and Galvin, Bellarmine also had a 42-26 advantage in points in the paint.
As it did against Ashland, Bellarmine started slow and trailed Rockhurst 13-4, but a pair of layups by Merriweather spurred an 8-0 run as the Knights got their footing. Merriweather’s basket at the 4:39 mark in the second quarter gave Bellarmine a lead it would never relinquish. After the Knights missed their first six 3-point attempts, Hartlage buried a trifecta with 17 seconds left in the first half for a 37-30 lead.
A Curry 3-pointer in the third quarter boosted the advantage to 10, and back-to-back baskets by Bowers pushed it to 14 with 5:56 left before Rockhurst rallied to make it interesting.
Bellarmine will host William Jewell at 1 p.m. (ET) Saturday.
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by Adam Pruiett
