Belmont Gets Past Southern Illinois in MVC Tournament Quarters, 70-64

MOLINE, Ill. – Making its Missouri Valley Conference Tournament debut, the Belmont University women's basketball team pulled out a hard-fought, gritty 70-64 quarterfinal victory over Southern Illinois Friday evening at Vibrant Arena at The MARK in the Quad Cities. Junior guard Destinee Wells stole the show, scoring a near career-high 34 points as she propelled the second-seeded Bruins (22-10, 17-3 MVC) to their 15th-straight win.
 
Belmont trailed for 23 minutes of the contest and needed all of Wells' 22 second-half points to get past the seventh-seeded Salukis (12-19, 8-12 MVC). Wells hit a three-pointer late in the shot clock with 2:53 remaining to give the Bruins a 64-63 advantage before sealing the triumph with a pair of late free throws.
 
The Lakeland, Tennessee (Houston HS), native's 34 points are tied for the sixth-most in a MVC Tournament game.

Both sophomore guard Kilyn McGuff and junior forward Madison Bartley also made massive plays down the stretch. McGuff drew an offensive foul with 3:22 left to set up Wells' go-ahead three and later brought down an offensive rebound on a missed foul shot with two minutes to go. Following McGuff's offensive board, Wells nailed two free throws to give Belmont a three-point lead at 67-64 with 1:42 on the clock.

With the score even at 64 with just over two minutes remaining, Bartley collected an offensive rebound on a jump ball and knocked down a free throw after drawing a foul.
 
The Bruins scored the final six points of the game courtesy of free throws from Wells (4), Bartley (1) and McGuff (1). Southern Illinois was held without a made field goal for the last four-and-a-half minutes of action.

Wells scored 22 of Belmont's last 27 points from the six-minute mark of the third quarter forward. In fact, she scored eight-straight Bruin points in both the third and fourth quarters and had 14 in the final stanza.

Sophomore forward Tessa Miller nearly had her fourth double-double of the season, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds.
 
Despite holding a 36-34 advantage on the glass, Belmont conceded 36 points in the paint. The Bruins scored 16 points off 17 Saluki turnovers and earned 12 second-chance points on 14 offensive boards.
 
Belmont shot just 42.1 percent (24-of-57) from the field and uncharacteristically went 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) from beyond the arc. The Bruins were 17-of-24 (70.8 percent) at the foul line.

Southern Illinois outscored Belmont 17-5 off the bench and shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57) for the evening, but was only 3-for-12 from outside.

Graduate guard Sydni Harvey drained a deep triple to begin the Bruins' scoring but Belmont trailed 8-5 early. A three-pointer by the Salukis' Quierra Love gave Southern Illinois a 25-21 lead four minutes into the second quarter.
 
The Salukis would lead 29-25 with four minutes to go in the half before the Bruins put together a 9-0 run sparked by a corner trey from sophomore forward Kendal Cheesman. A Wells free throw gave Belmont a 34-29 advantage with 1:43 left in the second quarter, the Bruins' largest lead of the first half.

However, Southern Illinois ended the half on an 8-2 run to take a narrow 37-36 lead into the break.
 
The Salukis shot 50 percent (15-of-30) across the opening 20 minutes, while Belmont shot 43.8 percent (14-of-32) and went 3-for-11 from distance.

A layup from Miller a little over three-and-a-half minutes into the second half knotted the score at 41 before Wells took control following a driving layup that evened the score at 43.

A step-back jumper from Wells gave the Bruins their first lead of the second half at 49-48 with 1:46 remaining in the third quarter. After Southern Illinois scored five-straight points, McGuff nearly completed a four-point possession right before the quarter's buzzer with a putback on a missed free throw while being fouled.

Both teams scored 35 combined points in the second and third quarters before Belmont outscored the Salukis 18-11 in the final period. The Bruins went 9-for-13 at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.

Down 59-56 with seven minutes left, Wells completely changed the momentum of the game with a conventional three-point play. She went on to score eight consecutive Belmont points as the Bruins closed the evening on a 14-5 scoring run over the last seven minutes.

Wells added a game-high five assists and was 11-for-17 from the field and 10-for-11 at the free-throw line. McGuff posted seven points and eight rebounds.

Southern Illinois was led by a trio of double-figure scorers with a team-best 12 points and eight boards from starting guard Laniah Randle. The Salukis got 11 points from Shemera Williams and 10 from Ashley Jones. Tamara Nard had nine rebounds and eight points off the bench for Southern Illinois.

Of Note
Belmont improves to 4-0 all-time versus the Salukis, including 3-0 this season. The Bruins are 22-4 in conference tournaments over the last 11 seasons and 19-1 in conference tournaments since 2016. Head Coach Bart Brooks is 13-1 in league tournaments in six seasons. Belmont is 11-0 in February and March and has won 19 of its last 22 games. Wells has scored over 30 points in back-to-back games after tallying 31 points in the Bruins' road win at Valparaiso last Saturday. She has scored over 25 points in three of her last four outings and owns three 30-point games on the season. Wells has scored 42 of Belmont's closing 51 points the last two games combined. She had 20 of the Bruins' 24 fourth-quarter points against the Beacons last weekend. Bartley needs only 18 more points to become Belmont's 34th 1,000-point scorer. With 1,551 career points, Wells is in eighth place on the Bruins' all-time scoring list. She passed current director of basketball operations Sally McCabe for third place on Belmont's NCAA era career scoring list.

Up Next
The Bruins advance to Saturday's Hoops in the Heartland semifinals where they will face third-seeded Northern Iowa at 4 p.m. in Moline, Illinois. The Panthers (22-8, 16-4 MVC) defeated sixth-seeded University of Illinois Chicago 73-57 in the MVC Tournament's quarterfinal nightcap Friday. Saturday's semifinal matchup will be broadcast on ESPN+.

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