LA CROSSE, Wis. -- The Bellevue University men's basketball team picked up a 66-50 road win over Viterbo University on Friday evening in North Star Athletic Association play at the R.W. Beggs Senior Gymnasium.
With the victory, Bellevue improves to 13-9 overall and 5-4 in NSAA play while the loss drops Viterbo to 12-9 (4-5 NSAA) on the season.
The first half started somewhat slow as the teams combined to make just three of their first 14 field goal attempts and turn the ball over 10 times in the first 6:34 of the game.
However, play started to pick up as the half went along with Bellevue using 19-9 spurt in just under six minutes to take their largest lead of the half, 11 points, on a Jaffery Stillman layup with 7:45 to play put the Bruins up 25-14 over Viterbo.
After the first 20 minutes was in the book, Bellevue took a 35-29 lead into the halftime break.
BU spread the ball around well in the opening half as eight different players found their way into the scoring column led by Richard Reed, Connor Dukes, and Stillman with six points each. Nick Hilton added five while Brandon Fagins and BJ Shelton added four each.
Jason Tichy led Viterbo with 10 first-half points while Cullin Neeck added five.
Fagins led BU with seven rebounds in the opening half as Bellevue held a 21-18 edge on the glass through 20 minutes of play. Cade Anderson paced the V-Hawk rebounding effort with nine first-half boards.
After allowing the first basket of the second half, Viterbo was unable to pull within six points of the Bruins the rest of the way. From the 10:15 to 3:20 mark of the second half Bellevue held Viterbo to just two points as they stretched an eight-point lead to 13 on a layup from Shelton.
In total Bellevue out-scored the host V-Hawks 31-21 in the second half. The 50 points scored by Viterbo were the fewest allowed by the Bruins in an NSAA since Bellevue limited Mayville State to just 48 points on Jan. 7, 2017.
Reed led all scorers with 14 points while Stillman was the only Bruin to join him in double-figures with 10 points of his own. Dukes scored nine and Wilder added seven.
Fagins finished with six points and a season-high 12 rebounds to help Bellevue out-rebound Viterbo 45-33 on the evening.
Tichy totaled 14 points to lead Viterbo and Ethan Haberman added 12 in the loss. Anderson's 14 rebounds were a game-high and just missed a double-double, finishing with eight points.
The Bruins have a week off before returning to play on Friday, Jan. 26 at Dickinson State University. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. Central Time (7:30 p.m. Mountain Time).
