YORK, Neb. - Senior Dimitri Chonis (Tucson, Ariz.) led three Bruins in double-figures with 21 points as the Bellevue University basketball team rolled to an 86-71 season-opening victory over Hastings College at the York Classic on Friday evening. Bellevue (1-0) has now won consecutive season-openers while Hastings (0-1) lost to the Bruins for the first time since Nov. 9, 2011.
Junior Pogos Trunyan (Sacramento, Calif.) canned a three-pointer at the 10:58 mark to put Bellevue up 16-13 and they would not trail again the rest of the contest.
After allowing the opening basket the No. 6 Bruins used a 9-2 run to take the lead with junior Taylor Young (Hawthorne, Calif.) completing an old-fashioned three-point play followed by more conventional trifectas by Chonis and senior Thomas Hammock (Compton, Calif.).
A 9-0 spurt by the Broncos would give Hastings their final lead of the game at 13-9 but four free throws by senior Percy Lemle (Carson, Calif.) in a span of less than a minute tied the game at 13-13.
Overall the Bruins out-scored Hastings 37-19 to close the first half and take a 46-32 lead into the locker room. The run was capped by consecutive triples by freshman Yusuf Shehata (Tucson, Ariz.) with 52 and five seconds to play, respectively.
The second half started evenly with the teams essentially trading baskets until the Bruins struck for five straight to take a 65-47 lead with 10:33 remaining in the game. A 12-4 run over the span of 2:13 pulled Hastings within 10 at 69-59 but that was as close as the Broncos would get as the Bruins held on for the 86-71 victory.
Young and senior Alex Worthen-Harris (Phoenix, Ariz.) joined Chonis in double-figures with 18 and 10 points, respectively. Young added a game-high seven assists while Worthen-Harris' seven rebounds were a team-high. On his way to his 21-point outburst Chonis hit four of his seven attempts from beyond the arc.
Shehata hit for nine points off the bench while Trunyan added eight of his own to support the Bruin attack. Bellevue hit on 44.1% (30-68) of their field goal attempts including going 12-31 (38.7%) from deep.
Perhaps most telling in the opener was that Bellevue forced Hastings to commit 19 turnovers while only committing five of their own while gaining a 20-9 edge in free throw attempts.
Bellevue will return to play tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. to take on Friends University as they wrap up the York Classic.
