The men’s and women’s basketball team’s both fell to Bellarmine tonight in the first of three conference home games this week.

This was the first loss for the men’s team, previously 16-0 it moves to 16-1.

“It came down to loose balls. They did a really good job of getting to all the loose balls,” assistant coach Kevin Gant said. “They outhustled us, we looked a step slow. They looked a lot quicker to the ball.”

The men’s team did outrebound Bellarmine with 32 rebounds to its 29, but Bellarmine had 23 defensive rebounds while USI had 18.

USI ended the night shooting 42.6 percent from field-goal range and just 24 percent from three-point range. The team is averaging 43 percent on the year.  They challenged all of our shots.

Gant said the team wasn’t reversing the ball well enough to make shots from that range like it usually does. They challenged all of our shots.

“(Bellarmine) challenged all of our shots,” Gant said.

The team doesn’t have long before it faces Wisconsin-Parkside Thursday, which will head to the Physical Activities Center 15-1 for the year.

“You just got to flush this one,” Gant said. “You have to move on to the next one. Every game is tough, if you dwell on one too long you’re going to get beat the next one, so we are going get rid of this one and get ready for Parkside on Thursday.”

Assistant Coach Randa Dallas said it’s the same for the women after their loss to Bellarmine brought their record to 14-3.

Dallas said the team has to leave this loss behind and move on to the next game. She said despite the final outcome the game showed that the team can play with anybody in the country.

The women’s team came out strong defensively, but Dallas said the loss came down to the team taking possessions off.

“You can’t take possessions off, especially on the defensive end,” Dallas said. “I think we did that a little bit.”

Junior guard Randa Harshbarger said the team realizes after tonight’s game the impact those lost possessions had.

“The slightest break in those defenses is when they can really use their strength and go against us,” she said. “…Now we know no possessions off and to come out strong.”

Harshbarger said win or lose the team knows it has to play hard Thursday and Saturday to continue the week.

“It’s fuel to the fire,” she said.