NASHVILLE, Tenn. - - Belmont University men's basketball returns to game action Friday in the semifinal round of the 2017 OVC Basketball Championship.
Belmont won its ninth regular season conference championship in the last 12 years, and fourth in five OVC seasons. Only Kansas and Gonzaga have won more since 2006.
Senior Evan Bradds (Jamestown, Ohio), named to the 2016-17 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division I Men's Basketball Team Thursday, was named OVC Player of the Year for a second consecutive season.
Junior Austin Luke (Rowlett, Texas) and head coach Rick Byrd were also honored as part of the 2016-17 OVC Men's Basketball Honors announced Tuesday.
Bradds is the OVC active leader in points (1,880) and rebounds (898), and is 40 points shy of Belmont's NCAA Division I era career scoring mark held by Golden State Warriors guard Ian Clark.
In fact, Bradds' career field goal percentage of .674 is third all-time in NCAA Division I men's basketball since the statistical category was first tracked in 1948.
He is also a finalist for the Julius Erving Award and Senior CLASS Award. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their athletic platforms to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Since 2006, Belmont is 22-4 in conference tournament games, including seven conference tournament championships (2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012 - Atlantic Sun; 2013, 2015 - OVC).
Belmont will play either Jacksonville State or Southeast Missouri.
Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. CT from Municipal Auditorium. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU and the WatchESPN app. The live play-by-play of Voice of the Bruins Kevin Ingram can be heard on the Bruin Sports Network and 104.5 The Zone. In-game updates will be available via Twitter @BelmontMBB.
OVC Semifinal Game Notes
