OAKLAND, Calif. Bellarmine controlled the boards and pulled away after halftime to beat the Head-Royce boys varsity team 68-49 on Saturday, giving the Jayhawks their first loss of the season. Head-Royce fell to 7-1. Bellarmine outrebounded the Jayhawks 32-15 and shot 48 percent from the field.
Head-Royce started fast behind Micah Nyamuzuwe, who scored the team's first eight points. His putback tied the game at 2. He then hit back-to-back 3-pointers, both set up by Bryce Clepper and the first coming off a turnover, to give the Jayhawks an 8-5 lead, their biggest of the day. Two Clepper free throws made it 10-7 before a Brayden Harris 3-pointer put Bellarmine in front 12-10. Clepper tied the game at 12 with a basket, the last of three ties, but Bellarmine scored on its next possession and never trailed again.
A 6-0 Bellarmine run stretched a 16-14 lead to 22-14. Head-Royce kept answering. Marcel Pierre-Louis scored off a turnover and later hit a 3-pointer on a feed from Marcus Lefkovits, and a Nyamuzuwe basket cut the deficit to 25-21. Bellarmine scored the next five points, and Pierre-Louis converted a Nyamuzuwe assist to make it 30-23. Julian Gospich's second-chance basket then sent Bellarmine to halftime with a 32-23 lead.
That putback started an 8-0 run that decided the game. Nick Corbett opened the second half with a second-chance basket, and his two free throws around a Harris basket pushed the margin to 38-23. Bellarmine kept building from there and reached its largest lead, 26 points, at 60-34 on a Will Corbett basket. Head-Royce closed with more energy. A Pierre-Louis 3-pointer began a 9-2 stretch that included two baskets by Johnny Williams, one off a turnover, and a Lefkovits basket assisted by Clepper. Micah Riebel scored Head-Royce's final six points, including a 3-pointer set up by Clepper. Bellarmine won the second half 36-26.
Nyamuzuwe led Head-Royce with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting, including 2 of 5 from 3-point range, and added two assists. Pierre-Louis scored 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting with two 3-pointers and a block. Riebel gave the Jayhawks 8 points and a team-high three steals off the bench. Clepper scored 7 points, made 5 of 6 free throws and had a team-high four assists. Williams added 6 points and a team-high five rebounds.
Head-Royce shot 34 percent (17 of 50) from the field, 5 of 21 from 3-point range and 10 of 18 at the line. Bellarmine went 16 of 22 on free throws and held an 8-2 edge in second-chance points. The Jayhawks forced 10 turnovers, committed only seven and led 9-0 in points off turnovers, and their bench added 12 points. Will Corbett led Bellarmine with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Gospich had 15 points and eight rebounds, and Nick Corbett added 14 points and nine rebounds.
Head-Royce, now 7-1, returns to action on Tuesday, Jan. 9, when it hosts Bentley JV.
