MORGANTOWN, WV — The Bellarmine University men’s basketball team played another Power-5 program to single digits on the road, challenging West Virginia until the final whistle before the Mountaineers secured a 62-58 win Sunday night in WVU Coliseum.

Bellarmine (2-5) has not made life easy on Big 12 opponents. In addition to West Virginia (3-3), the visiting Knights played Kansas State to within single digits at 83-75. BU’s demanding nonconference slate has thus far also included the Pac-12’s Washington.

Sophomore guard Peter Suder registered a game-high 19 points with three assists for Bellarmine. Senior guard Bash Wieland notched 10 points while sophomore guards Ben Johnson and Billy Smith added eight apiece. Senior guard Alec Pfriem collected five rebounds and three steals, and junior forward Langdon Hatton distributed a career-high four assists.

Bellarmine was largely neck-and-neck with West Virginia. The Knights went cold at the end of the first half in trailing 36-30, but the Mountaineers’ eight-point lead less than 30 seconds into the second stanza was their biggest of the game.

With 11:24 remaining, senior guard Garrett Tipton followed a jumper by Suder with a 3-pointer as Bellarmine seized a 45-44 lead. West Virginia would regain the advantage, but it remained tight as Wieland canned a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 51-50 with 4:43 left.

West Virginia followed with a crucial 6-0 run to stake the Mountaineers to a 58-51 lead with two minutes remaining. Suder subsequently found Wieland underneath for a layup, but the Knights then missed a trio of 3-pointers to get within two, and WVU followed the final miss with a Jesse Edwards dunk with 22 seconds left.

Bellarmine had a strong effort on the boards. The Knights finished minus-3, but they had a 12-7 advantage in offensive rebounds. BU also had eight steals and forced 14 turnovers while committing only nine.

Bellarmine amassed one more made field goal overall and outscored West Virginia 27-9 from 3-point range. However, the Mountaineers had a sizable advantage from the free-throw line, hitting 17-of-21 chances while Bellarmine had only eight opportunities from the charity stripe, making five.

Bellarmine will play at 8 p.m. (ET) Wednesday at Louisville.

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