Bruins Set for 77th Battle of the Boulevard Versus Rival Lipscomb

 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 77th edition of the Battle of the Boulevard will be hosted inside the Curb Event Center late Wednesday afternoon as the Belmont University women's basketball team welcomes fellow Belmont Boulevard resident Lipscomb to campus. Tipoff is slated for 5 p.m. with the men's game between the two schools following 30 minutes after the final buzzer.
 
Wednesday's rivalry game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Dr. Rich Tiner (play-by-play) and former Bruin guard Jenny Roy Bream ('19) (analyst) on the call. Landen Secrest will be reporting from the sideline. The game can also be heard on Belmont Bruins Radio on iHeart Radio. Live in-game statistics will be available at BelmontBruins.com.
 
Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics is the presenting sponsor of Wednesday's doubleheader and fans are expected to wear white. The doubleheader is a white out with free white t-shirts located at all seats of the Curb.
 
What's Bruin

• Belmont is riding a three-game winning streak and has held its last three opponents under 70 points.
• The Bruins are fresh off another impressive home win, defeating Middle Tennessee 71-57 this past Sunday afternoon. Belmont never trailed in the mid-state showdown, led by as much as 23 in the fourth quarter and held the visiting Lady Raiders, who entered the weekend receiving a vote in the USA Today Sports/Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Top 25 Coaches Poll, to 31.6 percent shooting.
• A remarkable three-point shooting display against Middle Tennessee saw the Bruins connect on 13 of their 24 attempts from beyond the arc (54.2 percent) and Belmont was a perfect 8-for-8 at the free-throw line. The Bruins have made 10 or more three-pointers on three different occasions through eight games.
• Juniors Kilyn McGuff (4-of-5), Kendal Cheesman (5-of-7) and Tuti Jones (3-of-6) combined to go 12-for-18 from outside versus the Lady Raiders as McGuff scored a game-best 22 points on 7-for-11 shooting and snagged a game-high tying eight rebounds.
• Over Thanksgiving week, Belmont notched its second win over a power conference program this season. The Bruins defeated the Big Ten Conference's Northwestern in convincing fashion, 83-61, at the 2023 Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas. The victory was Belmont's fifth over a power conference team in four seasons. In addition to a 76-50 rout of Georgia in their home opener, the Bruins have earned wins against Oregon, Ole Miss and Auburn in recent years.
• Five of Belmont's first six games of the season were against power conference programs. The Bruins will see six total power conference teams in 2023-24.
• Belmont came within a point of defeating receiving-votes Mississippi State on Sunday, Nov. 19 inside the Curb. A free-throw line jumper by freshman standout guard Jailyn Banks and a putback attempt from McGuff both rimmed off in the final seconds.
• After averaging 20.0 points on 65.2 percent (15-of-23) shooting and 9.0 rebounds last week, McGuff earned her first Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week award. The guard from Columbus, Ohio (Bishop Watterson HS), led the Bruins to their first 2-0 week of the season with strong performances in the win at Troy and the victory over Middle Tennessee. In Belmont's 72-68 road triumph over the Trojans last Wednesday, McGuff recorded her first career double-double with a game-high tying 18 points and a career-best 10 boards.
• After her true junior season was cut short due to injury last year, Jones returned for the season opener at the University of Missouri and has distributed at least four assists in seven of the first eight games of the season. Making her hometown return last Wednesday at Troy, Jones scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds before posting 15 points, five boards, four assists and two steals Sunday in the win over the Lady Raiders. Averaging 4.8 assists per game, Jones recorded her second career double-double against the Wildcats at the Ball Dawgs Classic in the desert with 12 points and a career-high 10 assists. Named to the Preseason All-MVC Second Team, Jones was the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year and an All-OVC First Team selection as a sophomore in 2021-22.
• Junior forward Tessa Miller scored in double figures each of the first seven games of the season, including tying her career high with 18 points against the Trojans last Wednesday on the road. In the Bruins' battle with top-five ranked Stanford in Las Vegas, Miller scored a career-high 18 points on 9-for-16 shooting.
• Reaching double figures in all but two games thus far, Banks earned back-to-back MVC Freshman of the Week awards to begin the season. A native of Spring Hill, Tennessee (Middle Tennessee Christian School), Banks tallied 23 points in the opener against the Tigers of Missouri, the fourth-most by any true freshman this season making her debut.
• Forward Cheesman pulled down a career-best 14 rebounds versus the top-five ranked Cardinal and scored a game-high 21 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including 4-for-7 from distance, in the win over Northwestern inside The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada. This past Sunday against Middle Tennessee, Cheesman reached 15 points with five triples. In her first career start, Cheesman erupted for a career-high 28 points on 9-for-15 three-point shooting and collected nine rebounds in the convincing home win over the Lady Bulldogs of Georgia. Her nine three-pointers are tied for the second-most by a NCAA Division I women's basketball player in a game thus far this season and were just one shy of both the single-game program and Curb Event Center record. The Tampa, Florida (H.B. Plant HS), native became the first player since at least 2009-10 to make nine threes and secure nine boards against a power conference team. For her performance, Cheesman was selected as Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Player of the Week (Nov. 14).
• The Bisons are the eighth of 14 opponents on Belmont's schedule who had a winning record in 2022-23 and the fifth of 10 adversaries who won 20 or more games last year.
• The Bruins' schedule features 12 teams who made a national postseason tournament last March and six NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago.
• Half of Belmont's opponents thus far this season are ranked in the top 75 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), including No. 2 Stanford. In the first week of the NET in 2023-24, the Bruins are 81st.
• Lipscomb enters Wednesday with a NET ranking of No. 118.
• Moving up three spots from last week, Belmont is ranked 13th in CollegeInsider.com's Mid-Major Top 25^®. The Bisons are receiving two votes in the mid-major poll.
• The Bruins won their sixth regular season conference championship in seven seasons last year. Belmont has captured nine regular season conference titles in the Bruins' NCAA era. Including the regular season and league tournament, Belmont has won 16 combined conference championships in three different Division I conferences (MVC, OVC and Atlantic Sun Conference).
• The Bruins are one of only 11 teams in the nation to have won 20 or more games for eight-straight seasons.
• Belmont (11) is one of only three programs to have won more than 10 combined conference championships (regular season and tournament) over the last seven seasons. UConn (14) and Florida Gulf Coast (12) are the other two.
• Belmont is the only school in the nation to win 20-plus games for eight consecutive seasons in both women's and men's basketball.
• The Bruins have either been ranked or received votes in at least one of the two major national polls each of the last eight seasons.
• Belmont has won the 17th-most games in NCAA Division I women's basketball history (1,062).

 
Under Coach Brooks

• In his seventh season at the helm, head coach Bart Brooks earned his 150th win in less than 200 career games last Wednesday at Troy.
• Coach Brooks was named to the preseason watch list for the 2024 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats. Since his arrival in Nashville, he has led the Bruins to a 151-49 (.755) record, four NCAA Tournaments and back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 in 2021 and 2022. The third-fastest head coach to 100 career victories in Division I women's basketball history, Brooks owns an astounding record of 111-14 (.888) against conference opponents, including conference tournament games. He ranks among the top 10 of active Division I head coaches in terms of winning percentage.

 
MVC Preseason Poll

• Belmont was picked fourth in the MVC but gained one first-place vote in the preseason predicted order of finish after capturing a regular season championship in the Bruins' first year in the conference in 2022-23. Going 23-12 overall and 17-3 in the Valley, Belmont reached its third-straight conference tournament title game and made its 10th national postseason appearance in 11 seasons with an at-large bid to the WNIT.

 
Bruins at Home

• The Bruins are 92-13 (.876) at home since the start of the 2015-16 season.
• Belmont has a home winning percentage of .742 (190-66) inside the Curb since the arena was opened prior to the 2003-04 season.
• Under coach Brooks, the Bruins are an exceptional 68-12 (.850) inside the Curb.

 
Battle of the Boulevard History

• Belmont is 50-26 all-time versus rival Lipscomb and the Bruins own a commanding 27-9 lead in the series since joining the NCAA ranks (1996-97).
• Belmont has won 13 straight Battle of the Boulevard games dating back to January of 2011.
• On Jan. 27, 2011, the Bisons got their last win over the Bruins with a 73-59 triumph at the opposite end of the boulevard.
• Lipscomb has not defeated Belmont inside the Curb since Jan. 12, 2009. In fact, the Bruins are 13-2 versus the Bisons in the Curb.
• Last season on Dec. 6 as well, McGuff had a breakout game in a 77-68 Belmont road victory. In her first career start, McGuff scored a career-high 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting. She was one of two 20-point scorers.
• The two teams first met during the 1979-80 season and the Bruins emerged victorious, 77-65.

 
About the Bisons

• Led by fifth-year head coach Lauren Sumski, Lipscomb is off to a 5-2 start.
• The Bisons' lone losses on the season are to 18th-ranked Indiana (77-44) on the road and Fairfield (89-66) at home in Lipscomb's second game of the season.
• Having won each of their last two games, the Bisons are coming off a 68-45 win at East Tennessee State University last Thursday night. Lipscomb hasn't played a game in nearly a week.
• The Bisons began their campaign with a 77-58 win at fellow MVC member Evansville.
• Lipscomb won 20 games last season, going 20-12 overall and 13-5 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Finishing third in the conference, the Bisons bowed out in the ASUN Tournament semifinals to second-seeded Liberty.
• Lipscomb was picked second in the ASUN's preseason polls and earned two first-place votes from the league's head coaches.
• Junior 6-foot-2 guard/forward Bella Vinson, a preseason All-ASUN pick and returning All-ASUN First Team performer, leads five Bison averaging double-figure scoring with 12.6 points per game.
• Sophomore 6-foot guard Molly Heard, a member of the 2023 ASUN All-Freshman Team, is averaging 11.3 points per outing but did not play in Lipscomb's last game.
• Redshirt junior 6-foot-2 guard Aleah Sorrentino, also a Preseason All-ASUN Team selection, leads the Bisons in rebounding (7.0 RPG) and is averaging 10.9 points per contest.
• Sophomore 5-foot-6 starting point guard Ainhoa Cea leads Lipscomb in assists (3.6 APG).

 
Up Next
Belmont will have an 11-day break from game action, returning on Sunday, Dec. 17 for a non-conference matchup at Kennesaw State. Tipoff from the KSU Convocation Center in Kennesaw, Georgia, is set for 1 p.m. CT.
 
Ticket Information
Both single game and season tickets are on sale. Season tickets are only $199 per seat and include all women's and men's basketball home games.
 
View available seating and purchase your seats.
 
Flex pack plans for the 2023-24 season area also on sale and can be purchased here.
 
For more information, call 615-460-BALL or visit BelmontBruins.com/Tickets.
 
How to Follow
Follow Belmont women's basketball on social media - @BelmontWBB on Twitter, @belmontwbb on Instagram and Belmont Women's Basketball on Facebook - for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.