The Lindenwood men's basketball team gave the No. 3 Bellarmine Knights all they could handle on Wednesday evening from Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Mo. The Lions led for the first entirety of the first half, and portions of the second half, before ultimately falling by a final score of 81-73.

GAME OVERVIEW
Lindenwood opened the game strong, scoring 12 of the first 16 points, to take a 12-4 lead into the first media timeout. TJ Crockett led the Lions with seven points in the opening minutes of play, making each of his first three shots.

Later in the first half, Lindenwood saw its lead swell to a game-high 15-point margin at 29-14, as Cameron Scales knocked down his third triple of the first half with just over nine minutes remaining before halftime.
The third-ranked Knights battled back, trimming the Lions lead to eight points after the first 20 minutes of play.

Bellarmine began the second half on a 10-0 run, turning an eight-point deficit into a two-point lead with over 16 minutes to play.

The two teams exchanged buckets over the next 10 minutes, with neither team establishing a lead greater than six points. However, coming down the stretch, Bellarmine did manage to extend its lead to as many as nine points, taking a 69-60 lead over Lindenwood.

The Lions brought the Knights lead to just four points at 75-71 with 79 seconds remaining, as Scales connected on his sixth and final three-point field goal of the evening.

That was as close as Lindenwood would get to nationally-ranked Bellarmine, as the Knights closed out the 81-73 road victory.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The duo of Crockett and Scales guided the Lindenwood offense, combining for 43 of the team's 73 points.
- Crockett finished with a team-high 23-point performance (7-11 FG, 7-7 FT), while Scales posted a career-high 20 points (7-12 FG, 6-9 3PFG).
- Crockett has now led the Lions in scoring in each of their four games this season, eclipsing the 20-point mark in each contest.
- Scales hit four of his six three-point field goals in the first half, helping the Lions lead from wire-to-wire during the opening frame.
- Vijay Blackmon notched his third double-digit scoring effort of the season, finishing with 11 points (2-6 3PFG).
- Sukhman Bhinder established a new career-high with eight points, and dished out five assists to lead the Lions.
- Bhinder has led Lindenwood in assists in every game this season and is now averaging 5.0 assists per game.
- As a team, Lindenwood shot 50.0 percent from the field (25-of-50) and also 50.0 percent from three-point range (13-of-26).

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Kyle Gerdeman
"I'm really proud of our guys and our effort out there tonight against one of the top teams in the nation," said Gerdeman. "We got off to a great start tonight, we shot it really well in the first half, and really executed offensively. Bellarmine is a strong team and they made some quality adjustments, showing why they are ranked third in the country. I think this is a great learning experience for our team to see what it takes to beat the number three team in the country and one of the best teams in our conference."

UP NEXT
Lindenwood will head to Champaign, Ill. for an exhibition contest against NCAA Division I, Illinois on Tuesday, Nov. 26. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.