ABERDEEN, S.D. -- Jaffrey Stillman recorded his fourth double-double of the year but it wasn't enough to help the No. 19 Bellevue University men's basketball team overcome an uncharacteristically poor shooting night as the Bruins fell to Presentation College, 80-69, at the Strode Center on Friday evening.
Presentation snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 9-13 overall and 3-8 in NSAA action. Bellevue saw their season-long nine-game win streak come to a halt as they fell to 15-8 overall and saw their conference record dip to 7-3 and now sit one game back of Dickinson State for first in the league standings.
BU started the game off well, using an 8-1 run out of the gate over the game's first 2:06 but turnovers and missed shots allowed Presentation to bide their time in shaving points off the lead. Bellevue stretched their lead to as many as nine points, 16-7, at the 13:58 mark of the first half but the Saints used a 14-4 run over a stretch of 7:24 to seize a 25-22 lead. PC stretched their lead to as many as 10 at 33-23 on a layup by Lashawn Lewis with 30 seconds to play and took a 33-25 lead into the locker room.
Presentation picked up where they left off to open the second half, pushing their lead to 11 points early in the half on a pair of free throws from Donnell Minton. The lead stayed in the 8-10 point range for much of the second half without either team being able to string together a run. Elijah Valdez drained a three-pointer with 4:14 to play to push the Saints' lead to 70-55, their largest of the night, and effectively end any thoughts of a comeback bid by the Bruins.
BU shot a season-worst 31.8 percent from the field on the game and also recorded season lows in both three-pointers (2) and three-point percentage (11.8 percent). Free throw shooting kept the Bruins in the game, as they hit on 79.4 percent of their attempts (27-of-34).
Stillman finished with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds as he was one of four Bruins to score in double figures on the night. BJ Shelton led BU with 14 points while Mike Cardenas added 11 and Blake Wilder poured in 10.
Nick Hilton finished with nine points and four assists; Jalen Hall scored eight points and was 6-of-6 at the free throw line; and Terrance Wienecke scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds.
Minton led four Saints in double figures with a game-high 19 points to go along with seven rebounds. Aaron Samuels and Valdez each dumped in 15 while Samuels adding a team-high nine rebounds. Bryan Jones scored 10 points and Marcus Gatlin added nine for PC.
Bellevue returns home next weekend where they will host a pair of games at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center. The Bruins play (RV) Dickinson State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and follow that up with a 5 p.m. game against Mayville State on Saturday.
