Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Despite battling for 40 minutes with one of the nation's top mid-majors, the Belmont University women's basketball team (2-3) suffered a 62-53 setback Tuesday evening to Green Bay (3-1) in its 2016-17 home opener.
Belmont featured three players in double figures led by a season-high 17 points from Darby Maggard (Larwill, Ind.). Kylee Smith (Alpharetta, Ga.) chipped in with 12 points as she scored in double figures for the fifth time in Belmont's five games. Freshman Maddie Wright (Chattanooga, Tenn.) contributed one of the best games of her young career, scoring 10 points and grabbing four boards off the bench.
The Bruins' loss against Green Bay marked their first defeat at the Curb Event Center since February of 2015 as their run of 13-straight home victories came to a close.
The score stood at 45-45 with under eight minutes to play but an 11-0 Phoenix run midway through the fourth quarter proved to be the difference Tuesday night. Maggard connected on her season-high fifth trey with 2:18 left to play to score Belmont's first points in nearly five minutes which brought her team back within eight, but the Bruins couldn't battle back in the end.
Belmont led by as many as six and carried the lead for over nine minutes in the defeat as the game saw eight lead changes and four ties
The Bruins led 13-11 after the first quarter, as they connected on three early treys to jump out to a lead. Both sides had trouble finding their flow early on as each squad shot below 30% from the field. Smith paced Belmont with five quick points.
Belmont would also claim the second quarter with an identical 13-11 tally. After they went scoreless in the first five minutes of the stanza, the Bruins found their footing and closed the frame out with 6-0 scoring run. Green Bay led by as many as five in the quarter, but a free throw from the rookie Wright with just over a minute to play gave Belmont its first lead at 23-22, since it was 13-11 at the end of the first. After the Bruins forced the Phoenix into a shot clock violation, they advanced the ball up the court and earned a sideline out of bounds. The coaching staff crafted a brilliant play to free the sharpshooter Maggard, who drained a deep three as the horn sounded to give the Bruins a 26-22 lead heading into the intermission. Belmont really locked down on the defensive end late in the second quarter when it caused two shot clock violations in just the final minute of play.
In the third, Green Bay outscored the Bruins 22-14 as it shot 62.5% (10-16) from the field during what proved to be a pivotal stretch. After a conversion at the charity stripe from Smith made it 31-26 Bruins with 6:20 to play in the quarter, Green Bay mounted a rebuttal, going on a 9-1 run to grab a 35-32 lead. But BU came right back to tie things at 37-37 when Smith knocked down a three, only to see Green Bay score five straight to reclaim the lead at 42-37 with 30 seconds to play in the quarter. A Maggard triple with just nine seconds remaining in the quarter trimmed the gap to just two points, but Green Bay would beat the buzzer on this go around when Laken James connected from short range as the clock struck zero. The Bruins trailed by just four at 44-40 heading into the final act.
Things were tight in the fourth quarter in the early going as the teams exchanged blows. After the score was deadlocked at 48-48 with 7:57 to play, the Bruins would struggle from the field and watched as the Phoenix took control with a late scoring run. Lauren Thompson's (Franklin, Tenn.) free throws with 1:01 to play brought the Bruins within six at 59-53, but Belmont couldn't come up with any late game heroics as it walked away with its first home loss in over a year.
Junior Sally McCabe (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) brought in a season-best 13 rebounds and also blocked two shots.
Green Bay was led in scoring by Mehryn Kraker who finished with 18 to lead a group of three Phoenix players in double figures.
Belmont knocked down a season-high 10 three-pointers in the hardfought loss and its bench outscored Green Bay's, 17-14.
Green Bay held the edge in rebounding at 48-30, which included 19 offensive boards. The Phoenix won the battle in the paint, 36-12.
The Bruins now return to the road as they fly out west to compete in the LMU Thanksgiving Classic on the campus of Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, Calif. Belmont draws Fresno State on Friday, Nov. 25 before taking on host LMU on Saturday, Nov. 26.
