QUINCY, Ill. - The Bellarmine Knights pulled away in the second half to defeat the Quincy University men's basketball team 75-54 Thursday night (Feb. 1).  

The Knights came into the matchup with an 18-2 record and were ranked as high as #9 in the NABC poll.  

The Hawks came out unintimidated despite the national prowess of the Knights team.  

QU and Bellarmine were locked in a defensive struggle through the first seven minutes of the first half as the Hawks and Knights were tied at 11-11.  

The Knights took a three-point lead with 9:22 remaining in the first half.  The Hawks tied the game after a free throw by Marsalis Johnson and a pair of free throws by Demetrius Houston.  

QU again trailed by three after a layup by the Knights with 3:49 remaining in the first half.  The Hawks took the lead after a pair of layups by Johnson and Bobby Frasco.  

Bellarmine was able to stretch the lead to six after a tip-in just before the first half buzzer sounded.  

Halftime adjustments allowed for Knights to push their lead to 15 with 15:02 to play in the game.  

The Hawks were able to trim the lead to 12 with 10:05 remaining.  

A 13-0 run for five minutes of game time allowed Bellarmine to take a 64-39 lead.  

The Hawks were unable to overcome this lead and fell to the Knights 75-54.  

Demetrius Houston led the Hawks with 13 points, Bobby Frasco and Marcus Hinton added 11 and 10 points respectively.  

The Hawks fall to 7-14, 3-9 in the GLVC.  The Hawks are back in action Saturday, February 3rd against Southern Indiana at 3:15 p.m.