After a much-celebrated announcement in June of 2019, Bellarmine University will finally get to compete as a member of the ASUN Conference when the Knights (3-3, 0-0 ASUN) host Lipscomb University (6-6, 1-1 ASUN) in a men’s basketball game at historic Freedom hall on Friday at 7 p.m.
The game will be the first of back-to-back contests between the schools with game two slated for a 5 p.m. start on Saturday.
The ASUN scheduling committee certainly did not allow Bellarmine to ease into its new league. As luck would have it, the Knights are getting the preseason favorites in their league opener. The Bisons captured five of the nine first place votes in the ASUN Coaches Preseason Poll to outdistance Liberty-a team that went 30-4 last season-to earn the preseason favorite designation.
Obviously the ASUN coaches were impressed that Lipscomb returned 10 letterwinners from last year’s team, including 6-8, 260-pound Ahsan Asadullah who was named the league’s preseason Player of the Year. In the 2019-20 season, Asadullah was the only ASUN player ranked in the top-three for scoring (18.6), rebounding (10.1) and assists (3.9) and finished sixth in the league in blocks (36) and seventh in steals (36). He also added 15 double-doubles, 16 10-plus rebound performances and 12 20-point games a year ago while setting three new ASUN Championship records — 18 made field goals in a game (quarterfinals vs. FGCU), 89 total tournament points and 42 total tournament rebounds.
In addition, KJ Johnson (11.2 PPG, 1.8 APG), Greg Jones (8.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG) and Parker Hazen (4.8 RPG, 4.4 PPG) are also welcomed back into the fold for Lipscomb. The Bisons also have added graduate transfer Romaeo Ferguson to the mix, and he is putting up 12 points a game and has started all 12 contests.
An intriguing feature of Bellarmine’s ASUN debut is the coaching matchup that pits Lipscomb’s Lennie Acuff against the Knights’ Scott Davenport. The reason it’s so intriguing is that when Davenport made his collegiate heading coach debut 16 years ago, he did it against Alabama-Huntsville, who was coached by Acuff.
The Chargers got the better of the Knights 79-70 back on Nov. 15, 2005, but the coaches–who both built their programs into national DII powers, would go on to meet three more times and are 2-2 against one another. Bellarmine won the last two meetings. Both were neutral site games with the Knights knocking off UAH in the 2012 Elite 8 (82-73) and taking down the Chargers 81-68 in the 2016-17 Small College Hall of Fame Classic.
On Friday night, Davenport’s team will be sporting a modest two-game win streak after blowing out its last two opponents, dispatching DIII schools Transylvania and Mount St. Joseph by a combined 102 points. In their 90-38 victory over MSJ, the Knights held the Lions to the second lowest output by a Bellarmine opponent in program history. Almost 70 years ago, the Knights held “Louisville Municipal” to just 36 points in the fourth game in program history, played on Jan. 26, 1951. (The Knights also held Indiana Southeast to 38 points in a game played 11/26/91.)
Junior Pedro Bradshaw has emerged as a Bellarmine leader, pacing the Knights in both scoring and rebounding at 14.7 and 6.8 per game. Fellow junior Dylan Penn also has been dependable for the Knights averaging 13 points per game while leading the team in assists with a 3.5 average. After missing the first three games, senior CJ Fleming hasn’t missed a beat in returning to the lineup averaging 11 points a game and has nailed eight of 12 trifectas on the year.
As a team, the Knights are putting up great shooting numbers and lead the ASUN in both overall field goal percentage (53.7) and 3-point field percentage (43.2). In fact, only two other teams in Division I are outshooting Bellarmine from beyond the arc (Baylor, 43.8 percent and Cal-State Fullerton, 43.6 percent).
Both games against Lipscomb will be aired on ESPN+ with Nick Curran and former Knight Forrest Smallwood on the call. On the radio, the Knights can be heard on 93.9 The Ville with play-by-play by Doug Ormay and color commentary by Mark Bugg.
Tickets will be available at the door or through Ticketmaster.
