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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The No. 8 UIndy men's basketball team (23-4) endured a 90-74 loss to rival Bellarmine Friday night in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Deaconess GLVC Men's Basketball Championship Tournament, held at the Ford Center in downtown Evansville, Ind..  The sixth-seeded Knights shot 56 percent from the floor to hand the Greyhounds just their fourth defeat of the season.
 
In what has become one of the biggest rivalry games in Division II men's basketball, tonight's game was a grudge match for the two familiar foes; each team defeated the other on its home court in the regular season, with the Hounds winning by a deuce in Louisville in January, and the Knights taking a 15-point win at Nicoson Hall two weeks ago.
 
Unfortunately for the Greyhounds and head Stan Gouard, the game unfolded much more like the latter match-up than the former.
 
"We just didn't play well tonight," conceded Gouard.  "We came out flat, played from behind the entire night, and that's actually something we talked about; once Bellarmine gets the lead, they play very well.  They were in their comfort zone almost all night, and we never really got them out of it.
 
"I thought in the second half, we did a good job of getting them out of that comfort zone a little bit and cutting the game to three points, but we turned the ball over.  We had 13 turnovers against a team that doesn't pressure.  We can't do that.  Most of those turnovers were unforced."
 
The first half Friday was eerily similar to the previous match-up between the two, as Bellarmine once again used a high offensive efficiency to slow the Greyhounds' usually-potent transition attack.  The Knights shot 63 percent from the floor in the first half, including a 7-for-10 effort from behind the arc.
 
After trailing by 10 at the break, senior Reece Cheatham came out firing in the second half, draining back-to-back 3-pointers early in the period to pull UIndy within five.  He finished the night with a team-high 18 points – 15 of which came from behind the arc.
 
The Greyhounds got within three points on four different occasions in the second, but a 10-0 run by the Knights proved too much to overcome.

Junior Joe Lawson joined Cheatham in double figures, finishing with 16 points and six rebounds.  Sophomore Jordan Loyd came of the bench to notch his first collegiate double-double with 13 points and 10 boards.
 
Although a conference title is not in the cards for UIndy this season, Gouard knows that with some improvement, especially on defensive side, his team can make some major noise in the NCAA Tourney.
 
"We have to get back to work," said Gouard.  "That's the main thing.  We won 23 games in the regular season for a reason, and I thought the reason we did was because we guarded.  Our guys have to understand what Bellarmine did to us in these last two games (against them).  They shot 56 percent tonight, 60 percent last game, but when we beat those guys (in January), that percentage wasn't as high. 
 
"We have to get back to the way we defended when we won 23 basketball games and we're not doing that right now.  We still have basketball yet to play.  We have to find a way in practice next week to prepare for postseason play.  And it starts with me, and then our seniors and down the line. "
 
Bellarmine moves on to face another GLVC East Division rival in two-seed Wisconsin-Parkside (23-5) tomorrow in the conference semifinals, while the Hounds await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field Sunday night.  Use this link at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night to view the selection show on NCAA.com.