Bruins Welcome 12th-Ranked Ohio State to the Curb Sunday Afternoon

 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Following consecutive victories, the Belmont University women's basketball team returns to action Sunday afternoon by hosting 12th-ranked and defending Big Ten Conference regular season champion Ohio State. Tipoff from the Curb Event Center in the Music City is slated for 2 p.m.
 
The matinee marquee matchup will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Dr. Rich Tiner (play-by-play) and Carter Gledhill (analyst) on the call. Landen Secrest will be reporting from the sideline. The game can also be heard on Belmont Bruins Radio, available online. Live stats can be followed by visiting BelmontBruins.com.
 
Free Belmont Bruins cape flags will be given away to students in attendance and well-known acrobatist Red Panda will be performing at halftime. Belmont players will also be available for postgame autographs in the Maddox Grand Atrium.
 
What's Bruin

• The Bruins (2-1) have won back-to-back games after a challenging season-opener at now 10th-ranked Kansas State.
• Belmont improved to 8-0 in home openers under head coach Bart Brooks Thursday night with a 75-47 trouncing of Kennesaw State.
• Last Saturday, the Bruins routed Wichita State 75-55 on the road.
• Thursday's win over the visiting Owls was a complete team effort with Belmont assisting on 21 of 26 made baskets, holding Kennesaw State to 27.1 percent shooting, committing only nine turnovers, securing 13 steals, and splashing in 11 three-pointers. All 11 Bruins who got on the court knocked down at least one field goal. Belmont also made six blocks and outrebounded the Owls 44-37.
• Graduate guard Tuti Jones, the Bruins' NCAA era career steals leader (267), came up with five steals Thursday night versus Kennesaw State. Honored pregame with a commemorative basketball for becoming Belmont's 35th 1,000-point scorer in last year's regular season finale, Jones made her 100th career start Thursday.
• Senior forward Kendal Cheesman notched her sixth career double-double in the win over the Owls, scoring a team-high 19 points on 5-for-8 shooting from deep and snagging 10 rebounds.
• Fellow senior forward Carmyn Harrison made her first career start in the home opener and tallied a career-high tying 10 points.
• Junior guard Emily La Chapell dished out a career-best six assists and freshman forward Hilary Fuller recorded three blocks Thursday night.
• Freshman guard Quinn Eubank scored her first career points against Kennesaw State and graduate guard Jacee Busick, a Charlotte transfer, scored her first points as a Bruin.

Early Tests Against Some of the Nation's Best

• Belmont goes up against three teams who are ranked in the top 20 of both the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 and USA Today Sports/Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Coaches Poll within the first three weeks of the season. In addition to their season-opening visit to now No. 10/11 K-State, the Bruins host No. 12/12 Ohio State Sunday and travel to No. 16/16 Duke Thursday. Later in the season on Dec. 20, Belmont heads to No. 20/19 Kentucky.

Nationally-Ranked Opponents at the Curb

• Sunday will mark the third time the Bruins have hosted a top-25 team at the Curb.
• Two years ago on Nov. 13, 2022, seventh-ranked Louisville visited and barely escaped Nashville with a 75-70 win. Belmont trailed by only a point and had the ball with 30 seconds to go.
• The Bruins also hosted 16th-ranked Georgia on Dec. 12, 2013. The Lady Bulldogs won that matchup 81-55.
• Last season, Belmont hosted three teams receiving votes in at least one of the two major national polls and went 2-1 with wins over Georgia and Middle Tennessee.

Bruins at Home

• The Bruins are 103-14 (.880) at home since the start of the 2015-16 season.
• Belmont has a home winning percentage of .750 (201-67) inside the Curb since the arena opened prior to the 2003-04 season.
• Under coach Brooks, the Bruins are an exceptional 79-13 (.859) inside the Curb.
• In conference play, Belmont has been even more dominant at home, going 92-12 (.885) since 2012. In seven seasons, coach Brooks has lost only six league games at the Curb with a 58-6 (.906) record.
• The Bruins went 13-2 at home last season, securing the most home wins in a single season since 2019-20.

A Winning Program

• Belmont is the winningest program in the state of Tennessee over the previous 10 seasons, having claimed 237 victories with a winning percentage of .731 from 2014-24.
• Only nine other programs have also won 20-plus games for nine-straight seasons – UConn, Stanford, Baylor, South Carolina, Iowa, NC State, Indiana, South Dakota State and Florida Gulf Coast.
• The Bruins have won the 16th-most games of any NCAA Division I women's basketball program (1,085).
• Belmont is the only school in the nation to win 20-plus games for nine consecutive seasons in both women's and men's basketball.

A Championship Program

• The Bruins (11) are one of only five teams in the nation to have won more than 10 combined conference championships, regular season and tournament, over the last eight seasons. UConn (16), Florida Gulf Coast (14), South Carolina (11) and Princeton (10) are the other four.

National Postseason Success

• Belmont has made six of the last eight NCAA Tournaments and reached the Round of 32 back-to-back years in 2022 and 2021.
• The Bruins capped their 2023-24 season by claiming their third national postseason victory in four years with a 77-59 road win at Ball State in the first-ever Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) game.

National Recognition

• Belmont has either been ranked or received votes in at least one of the two major national polls in eight of the previous nine seasons.

Mid-Major Poll

• The Bruins are ranked 15th in the first CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25^® poll of the regular season.

Last Season

• Belmont went 26-9 to secure its most wins in a season since 2018-19. Going 17-3 in Missouri Valley Conference play, the Bruins finished second in their second year in the Valley.

MVC Preseason Poll

• Belmont was picked third in the MVC Preseason Poll as voted upon by the league's head coaches, media members and communications contacts but garnered three first-place votes. The Bruins have finished first or second in their conference each of the last nine seasons.

Experience and Youth

• Returning starters Jones, Cheesman and sophomore guard Jailyn Banks, all of whom were All-MVC Third Team selections last year and were named Preseason All-MVC Second Team, are three of eight returning letter winners for Belmont.
• The Bruins have a great mix of experience and youth in 2024-25 with fifth-year Jones, Cheesman and graduate transfer guards Busick and Kendall Holmes (South Dakota/DePaul) providing plenty of starting knowledge. Busick and Holmes brought in a combined 1,382 points and 150 Division I starts. In her Belmont debut at top-15 ranked K-State, Holmes scored a team-high 12 points.
• Over the summer, the Bruins also welcomed a trio of talented freshmen with Eubank (Union, Ky.), Fuller (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) and guard Sanaa Tripp (Covington, Ga.) arriving in the Music City.

Under Coach Brooks

• In his eighth season at the helm, coach Brooks was named to the preseason watch list for the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats for the second consecutive year.
• On Nov. 29, 2023, Brooks picked up his 150th win in less than 200 career games with Belmont's 72-68 victory at Troy. He has led the Bruins to a remarkable record of 174-56 (.757) and Belmont is an astonishing 114-15 (.884) in conference games under his leadership.
• In conference tournament games, Brooks has gone 15-3 and he is 4-1 in championship contests. In the key months of February and March under Brooks' direction, the Bruins have gone 79-14 (.849).

Among the Toughest Schedules in the Nation

• Belmont annually plays one of the best non-conference schedules in the country and this season is no different. The Bruins take on six, and possibly seven, power conference programs this year. Combined with its MVC slate, Belmont faces no fewer than 10 teams who won 20 or more games last season and has a date with nine programs who finished in the top 100 of the final 2023-24 NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.
• Additionally, the Bruins will see no less than 12 national postseason teams from a year ago, including six who reached the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Versus Ohio State

• Sunday afternoon will be the third meeting between Belmont and the Buckeyes.
• Ohio State has won each of the first two matchups by similar scores.
• On Dec. 22, 2023, the then 13th-ranked Buckeyes defeated the Bruins 84-55 in Columbus, Ohio. The game closed out Belmont's 2023-24 non-conference schedule. Cheesman scored 13 in the road loss and the Bruins were held to 5-for-23 shooting from outside. Ohio State shot 52.5 percent from the floor and went 12-for-26 from beyond the arc. All-American guard Jacy Sheldon, who was the fifth overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft and is also now on the Buckeyes' coaching staff as director of player development, scored 31 points. It was the most points scored by any player against Belmont last season.
• The Bruins also traveled to then seventh-ranked Ohio State on Nov. 19, 2015, and were defeated 84-56.

Against the Top 25

• Belmont is 1-33 all-time against nationally-ranked opponents in the Bruins' NCAA era.
• Belmont's lone victory over a top-25 team came in the 2021 NCAA Tournament First Round when the Bruins ousted 14th-ranked and fifth-seeded Gonzaga 64-59.

Against the B1G

• Belmont is 4-16 all-time versus current Big Ten members.
• The Bruins' last game against a Big Ten opponent was the second round of the 2024 WBIT, a 74-66 loss at Penn State.
• Belmont owns wins over Northwestern, Oregon, Indiana and Nebraska.
• Last season, the Bruins throttled the Wildcats of Northwestern 83-61 in the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas.
• For its second-ever NCAA Tournament win in 2022, Belmont defeated fifth-seeded Oregon 73-70 in double overtime in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• The Bruins topped the Hoosiers 58-54 on Dec. 4, 2012, in Indiana, and claimed a 77-52 win over the Huskers during Belmont's 1975-76 national postseason run in the 1976 National Women's Invitational Tournament (NWIT).

About the Buckeyes

• Led by 12th-year head coach Kevin McGuff, the Buckeyes are off to a 2-0 start with blowout home wins over Cleveland State (104-69) and Charlotte (94-53). The Vikings received a vote in the preseason national coaches poll.
• Coach McGuff's eldest, Kilyn McGuff, is a former Bruin guard (2021-24).
• Ohio State was picked to finish third in the Big Ten by both the league's head coaches and media members.
• Last season, the Buckeyes won the Big Ten regular season with a 16-2 record against the conference. Ohio State finished 26-6 overall and reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 as a No. 2 seed where it was bounced by seventh-seeded Duke (75-63).
• The Buckeyes are only two seasons removed from reaching the 2023 Elite Eight.
• Junior 6-foot forward Cotie McMahon, an All-American honorable mention selection last season and the 2023 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, is a Preseason All-Big Ten Team pick.
• Freshman 5-foot-7 guard Jaloni Cambridge, a Nashville native, and junior 5-foot-9 guard Chance Gray, an Oregon transfer, are both averaging 19.5 points through Ohio State's first two outings.
• Gray tied the Buckeyes' single-game record for made threes last Tuesday in Ohio State's win over Charlotte. She went 9-for-14 from distance.

Up Next
Belmont hits the road next Thursday and travels to top-20 ranked Duke before heading to the Sunshine State Thanksgiving week for the 2024 Elevance Health Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida (Friday and Saturday, Nov. 29-30). Tipoff next Thursday from Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET.
 
Ticket Info
Season tickets are on sale now for $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 2024-25 season are 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 X, formerly 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.