Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn. – An explosive first half helps Belmont women's basketball clinch its 14th consecutive victory, defeating Tennessee State, 87-70, Thursday night inside the Gentry Center. The win marked the Bruins 38th over an Ohio Valley Conference opponent.
Senior guard Kylee Smith (Alpharetta, Ga.) recorded her seventh 20-point performance of the season to lead the Bruins in scoring. She was joined by the veteran duo of Sally McCabe (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) and Darby Maggard (Larwill, Ind.) who scored 18 and 17 points, respectively. Junior guard Jenny Roy (Brentwood, Tenn.) powered BU's rebounding efforts with 12 boards, marking her sixth game with double-digit rebounds this year. As a team, Belmont (23-3, 13-0) shot 55 percent from the floor while connecting on 10 threes and dishing 20 assists.
Tennessee State (5-17, 3-10) was led by Tia Wooten's 31 points and seven rebounds. The league's leading scorer was followed by Kaliya Griffin (14 points) and Taylor Roberts (12 points). For the fourth consecutive game, Belmont held its opponents to a shooting percentage under 40, forcing TSU to a 37 clip on the night.
Belmont came out firing on all cylinders and never let up. Both squads traded buckets in the opening minutes of the first before the Bruins began to pull away. Smith drained a three at the 4:49 mark that led to nine consecutive points from the guard to spark a 9-3 Belmont run. Collectively, the team ended the first frame hitting their final nine field goals and shooting 83 percent from the floor. They also were perfect from beyond the arc, going 3-for-3.
A quick five points from Tennessee State made it a three-point game, 26-23, to start the second before Belmont held the Tigers scoreless for the next five minutes. The Bruins would go on a 22-2 run during that span with six different players scoring. They outscored TSU, 27-13, in the second quarter alone to take a 51-29 advantage into the locker room. Roy filled up her stat line with eight points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in the first half.
McCabe netted Belmont's first points of the second half for her 1,400th career point, becoming just the ninth player in program history to score at least 1,4000 points as a Bruin. The veteran continued to pour it in, accounting for six of Belmont's first nine points in the third stanza, making her the third player to reach double-digits. Maggard extinguished any hopes of a Tiger comeback, draining her third trey of the night to keep BU up by 20 tallies, 63-41. Wooten tried to get TSU back in the game, registering 13 points in the third quarter alone. Her efforts would come up short as BU took a 71-48 lead into the final frame.
The Bruins refused to let up in the final period as Smith sunk her fourth triple to put Belmont past the 80-point threshold for the 12th time this season. The squad continued to string together runs, pouring in seven unanswered to go up as many as 27 points on the Tigers. Despite scoring 22 points in the final frame, Tennessee State was unable to claw its way back into the game.
GAME NOTES
- Belmont continues its streak, winning its last 14 games. The Bruins are one of six teams in the country who boast a 14-game win streak.
- The win marks BU's 38th consecutive OVC victory, the second longest undefeated streak among conference foes in the country behind No. 1 UConn.
- BU moves to 13-0 in league play, the team is one of 12 in the country to remain undefeated in their respective conference slates.
- The Bruins have won their last five meetings against Tennessee State, moving the all time record to 31-11.
- Belmont's 51 first half points marked the second time this season that the Bruins have netted at least 50 in a half.
- Sally McCabe scored her 1,400th career point in the third quarter to become just the night player in program history to do so.
- Tonight marked the 10th time this season that Belmont has registered 10+ threes.
UP NEXT
Belmont concludes its four-game road swing at Tennessee Tech on Saturday, Feb. 10 inside the Eblen Center. The Bruins and Golden Eagles are slated to tip at 5:30 pm.
