RICHMOND, Ky. — Eastern Kentucky closed its regular season with a 72-58 Senior Day win over Bellarmine in front of 4,911 fans in McBrayer Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Colonels were playing in front of their largest home crowd since November of 2019 and the program's third-largest home crowd in the last five seasons.
EKU (13-17, 5-11 ASUN) trailed early but used a 9-0 run to build a 15-9 advantage at the 13:02 mark of the first half. The Colonels hit eight of their 16 three-point attempts in the first half as a Jomaru Brown [ekusports.com] trey put Eastern up 26-16 with 8:12 to go in the opening stanza. The lead swelled to 17 late in the half when Russhard Cruickshank's [ekusports.com] trifecta sent EKU into the locker room with a 39-22 lead.
The Colonels continued to fire away in the second half, using threes from Cooper Robb [ekusports.com] and Cruickshank to go up 45-25 at the 16:23 mark. Robb buried his third three of the game to put EKU ahead by 22 with 14:08 to play.
A 12-4 run by Bellarmine (17-13, 11-5 ASUN) whittled the lead down to 14, but Curt Lewis [ekusports.com] answered with a corner three to give EKU a 59-42 advantage with 8:46 remaining. The Knights rallied to within 15 with under eight minutes to go, but the Colonels answered with a pair of offensive rebounds that led to a Lewis three. On the ensuing possession, Robb drained another three to give Eastern a 67-46 lead with 6:01 left in the game.
Bellarmine scored eight consecutive points to trim its deficit down to 14 with 3:31 to play, but a three-point play from Brown ended the Knights' final rally.
Brown led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Robb chipped in 14 points, while Lewis added 11. Michael Moreno [ekusports.com] grabbed team-high seven rebounds and Cruickshank dished six assists.
Eastern Kentucky shots 25-of-51 (49.0 percent) for the game and held Bellarmine to 9-of-29 (31.0 percent) shooting in the first half. EKU went 14-of-29 from beyond the arc. The Colonels have set school records with 352 made threes and 1,001 attempted threes this season. Eastern assisted on 16 of its 25 made baskets and outrebounded the Knights 31-28.
EKU will travel to Kennesaw State for the first round of the ASUN Tournament on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
