Hopf putback propels Knights to 68-67 win over Bears on Senior Night
Due to his recovery from a recent injury, Coach Scott Davenport was only going to insert sophomore forward Curt Hopf into the Bellarmine University men’s basketball team’s Sunday contest with Central Arkansas in small cycles.
It’s a good thing one of those increments included the very end of the game.
Hopf stuck a putback with five seconds left and Central Arkansas missed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer as Bellarmine pulled out a crucial 68-67 victory over the Bears in ASUN action on Senior Night in Freedom Hall.
“Let’s go to these seniors: That’s nine student managers/graduate assistant/players that will obtain 12 degrees,” Davenport said. “… Last night, they spoke. It was very emotional but not one of them mentioned the word ‘I.’ All they talked about were others. And then we win a game where it took everybody.”
Hopf picked an opportune time to corral his first rebound of the matchup for Bellarmine (13-16, 8-8 ASUN), which struggled mightily on the boards against Central Arkansas (4-12, 9-20). After the Bears went ahead 67-66 on a Collin Cooper 3-pointer with 32 seconds left, the Knights missed a short jumper, but Hopf was there to grab the rebound.
He immediately rose and rattled in the go-ahead putback. The type of game-winning basket was borderline shocking considering Bellarmine had only four second-chance points all game and was outrebounded 40-25.
“It’s a funny game,” Davenport said. “There were 16 timeouts. Do you think I talked about rebounding in those timeouts? Every one of them. And we win on an offensive rebound.”
Central Arkansas had one last chance with four seconds left following a timeout after they advanced the ball past midcourt. Elias Cato attempted a deep 3-pointer from near the top of the key. It was on target but ultimately a little long, caroming off the back of the rim as time expired.
“Our late-game execution was tremendous,” Davenport said. “That’s the shot we wanted them to take. If they had made it, that would have been my fault.”
Bellarmine led 66-60 with less than two minutes left, but Central Arkansas seized the lead with a 7-0 run before it was halted by Hopf with only a handful of seconds remaining.
Freshman guard Peter Suder paced Bellarmine with 16 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore forward Langdon Hatton notched 12 points while senior guard Juston Betz registered eight points, a game-high seven assists, six rebounds and three steals. Senior guard Garrett Tipton and freshman guard Ben Johnson added eight points apiece.
“Pete and Juston’s guts on those backboards are incredible. Those two battled,” Davenport said. “I don’t know how Juston comes up with those steals. I don’t know where he comes from.”
The shooting statistics were nearly identical. Bellarmine helped alleviate its rebounding deficit by forcing 16 turnovers and scoring 20 points off them.
Central Arkansas missed a game-opening 3-pointer but then proceeded to bury four straight from long range in taking a 12-3 lead. Senior guard Alec Pfriem followed by spotting Hatton for a dunk and Suder and Johnson canned consecutive 3-pointers as Bellarmine got untracked and eventually took a 36-34 advantage into a halftime on a Pfriem jumper just before time expired.
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