Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Belmont University women's basketball (12-7, 4-2 OVC) notches first conference victory on the road over Jacksonville State (7-12, 2-5 OVC) with a score of 44-32.
"It feels good to get another victory on the road," said McCabe. "It was a weird game so we had to focus on ourselves. JSU has been playing really well in conference so it was good to get this win on the road."
Junior Sally McCabe (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) led the charge with 14 points. Freshman Jenny Roy (Brentwood, Tenn.) snagged eight rebounds while redshirt sophomore Kylee Smith (Alpharetta, Ga.) grabbed seven. Freshman Ellie Harmeyer (Kenosha, Wisc.) came out strong for the Bruins with seven points and four rebounds.
A slow start for the Bruins and the Gamecocks left the first quarter with Jacksonville leading 8-5. McCabe made the first basket of the game after a five-minute drought on both ends. Jacksonville knocked down three straight jumpers to take a 6-2 lead. With 0:12 left freshman Darby Maggard (Larwill, Ind.) hit a three, but the Gamecocks retaliated with a layup to end the first quarter.
"We changed our mentality after the first quarter, had to get used to playing at a slower pace," said Harmeyer.
Second quarter started with two hit free throws from Maggard. After back-to-back jumpers from Jacksonville State, Belmont went on a 12-2 and took the 19-14 lead. In the Bruin run Harmeyer contributed five points, Smith three and four from McCabe. Each team knocked down two more jumpers before the Bruins went into the half up 23-18.
The Bruins held the Gamecocks to just seven points in the third quarter. Belmont opened the third quarter with a 10-2 run, holding Jacksonville to a nearly six minute scoring drought. Junior
Frankie Joubran (Detroit, Mich.) hit a layup late in the third quarter which gave Belmont a three point lead, but a three from Jacksonville with 0:02 seconds left in the game cut Belmont's lead to 10.
Belmont did not score for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter along with five points by Jacksonville cut the Bruin lead to five. McCabe responded with a layup and one, followed by a layup from Roy, which extended the lead back to ten. Jacksonville would only hit two free throws during the final minutes of the game while McCabe and Thompson each hit one more to close out the game with a 12-point lead.
This marks the first road victory for the Bruins since defeating Wake Forest in early December.
Belmont returns home to play the second half of a double-header with Tennessee State on Saturday, Jan. 23. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. CT or 30 minutes after the completion of the men's game.
