INDIANAPOLIS – UIndy men's basketball suffered their first defeat of 2017, falling 81-75 to the 10th-ranked Bellarmine Knights Thursday night inside Nicoson Hall.

The Greyhounds hit a season-low 38.1 percent (24-63) from the field – including a 9-for-27 effort from inside the arc – while dropping to 10-8 overall and 7-2 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play. The loss also snaps the Hounds' seven-game winning streak.

The visiting Knights (17-3, 9-1) turned in a solid defensive effort for most of the game, and finished with a 38-30 edge on the glass.

"I think it just came down to rebounding and 50/50 balls," Assistant Coach Bryson Davis-Johnson told WICR afterward. "We don't question whether or not our players play hard. We think they play hard, but just down the stretch, we got out-toughed.

"And if you look at it, out of our sixty-three shot attempts, thirty-six of them were from three. We settled for 3-pointers; we didn't attack. That was on our scouting report: attack, drive and kick. We didn't do that today."

Bellarmine jumped out to a quick 11-5 lead in the first, but the Hounds rebounded shortly after on a 10-2 run to grab a 16-13 lead by the under-12 media timeout.

That was how much of the first period played out, as six ties and a pair of lead changes eventually led to a 32-30 Bellarmine advantage at the half. UIndy was led by sophomore Jesse Kempson's 11 points on a 3-for-4 start from beyond the perimeter.

Sophomore Jimmy King scored the first basket of the second on a pull-up jumper, but when BU's Rusty Troutman drained a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, it marked a lead the Knights would ultimately refuse to relinquish.

UIndy simply could not string together any scoring runs, as the Knights answered nearly every bucket with one of their own. In fact, until Bellarmine reeled off a 9-0 run toward the end of the game, neither side put together a run longer than 6-0.

That 9-0 run proved timely, however, and it gave the Knights their biggest lead of the game at 70-58 with 1:29 remaining.

Despite being down a dozen, the Hounds continued to fight. In a span of 59 seconds, UIndy poured in 14 points on the strength of a late shooting flurry. When junior Eric Davidson converted a magnificent and-one opportunity with 30 seconds left, the Hounds had got it all the way back within three, 75-72.

But Bellarmine, the best free throw shooting team in the conference entering the game, did what it needed to down the stretch by hitting all six of its freebies down the stretch. After not even getting to the line in the first period, the Knights finished 23 of 28 (82.1%) from the charity stripe for the game.

Davidson led the Hounds with 18 points, but went an uncharacteristic 3 of 10 from long range for the game. Redshirt-junior Alex Etherington followed with 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds, adding a pair of steals.

Classmate Ajay Lawton scored 14 – all in the second half – draining 4 of 6 from beyond the arc while recording seven assists and four boards.

The Crimson and Grey have little time to recoup before returning to divisional action, hosting No. 12 Southern Indiana Saturday. Tip-off between the Hounds and Screaming Eagles is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET.