EVANSVILLE, Ind. | Bellarmine University had three players score 14 points apiece as the No. 8-ranked Knights defeated Young Harris College 73-55 in a women's basketball game Sunday (Nov. 27) afternoon at the PAC on the final day of the USI Thanksgiving Classic.

The Knights improved to 6-0, while the Mountain Lions slipped to 2-3. Young Harris will now break for exams and will return to the court Dec. 12 when they travel to Montgomery, Alabama, for 5:30 p.m. Central time game against Auburn University at Montgomery.

Bellarmine used a 10-2 run midway through the first quarter to take an 18-8 lead on a Serena Sandusky jumper with 1:50 remaining. Young Harris scored six unanswered points midway through the second quarter as the Mountain Lions trimmed the deficit to six points (27-21) on a Jenny Vernet layup with 3:23 left in the half. 

The Knights, who led 39-29 at the half, used a 15-4 run in the third quarter to open up an 18-point lead (58-40) on a Whitney Hartlage with 1:39 to go.

"We played with much better effort today," said YHC head coach Matt Stearsman. "If you look at the box score, we did a lot of good things, but we just turned the ball over way too much. Everything else was dead even. You can't give up 30 points on turnovers and beat a top 10 team. But we learned a lot about ourselves and now it's time to go to work for the next couple of weeks and get better."

Bellarmine, which scored 30 points off 20 YHC turnovers, was led by Hartlage, Destony Curry and Beth Bowers, who each scored 14 points. Raven Merriweather added 13 more.

Meredith Tarver and Vernet each recorded a double double for the Mountain Lions. Tarver scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds while Vernet added 16 points and 12 rebounds. Meghan McQuade also contributed eight points, while Bria Ratliff added six more.