Louisville, Ky. -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (2-1 overall) battled fourth-ranked Bellarmine University (1-0 overall) even throughout the first half but eight three-pointers in the second half by the host Knights led to an 87-73 setback for the Warriors at Knights Hall.

The WSU defense held BU without a made field goal for the first 4:45, while building a 10-4 lead.  Senior center Ike Udanoh (Detroit, Mich./Warren Woods Tower) started the scoring, then classmate Bryan Smothers (Pontiac, Mich./Northern) scored the next four Warrior points before an Udanoh bucket and a pair of foul shots from Smothers closed out the opening run.

Knight Jeremy Kendle tallied six of his squad's next 10 points and Bellarmine led 18-14 midway through the opening period.  BU led 32-27 at the last media timeout of the first half.

A late WSU rally included four points by sophomore guard Mike Hollingsworth (Utica, Mich.) and a jumper by Smothers which gave the Warriors a 36-35 lead.  Stevie Loveless made a pair of foul shots with 4.5 seconds remaining to give the hosts a 37-36 advantage at intermission.

After holding the Knights to 1-of-8 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes, Bellarmine then connected on 8-of-18 in the second half to pull away for an 87-73 victory.

A lay-up by senior forward Jerry Oden (Detroit, Mich./Cass Tech) cut the WSU deficit to one (39-38), but the Knights responded by scoring the next nine points on triples by three different players.

Wayne State would get as close as seven (58-51) with 11:07 remaining, but the deficit would not be less than eight the rest of the match.

Smothers, who scored a career-high 26 points in last year's WSU win over Bellarmine, scored a team-best 23 points.  Hollingsworth chipped in with 14 points while Udanoh and freshman Bryan Coleman (Southfield, Mich./Lathrup) each added 10 points.

Kendle recorded a game-high 25 points.  BU held a 40-33 rebounding edge.

WSU will play at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Marygrove.