Kendall Holmes Named MVC Newcomer of the Week

ST. LOUIS – Following her valiant effort at the University of Kentucky this past Friday evening, Belmont University women's basketball's Kendall Holmes has been chosen as Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week. The graduate guard scored 18 points on the road against the 16th-ranked Wildcats on 6-for-10 shooting, including going 4-for-6 from beyond the arc.
 
A native of Plainfield, Illinois (Benet Academy), Holmes gave the Bruins a chance in the final minute in Lexington, Kentucky. With Belmont trailing by 12 with 3:08 to go, Holmes drew a foul on a strong take to the basket and knocked down both free throws to spark an impressive 13-4 scoring run. Moments later, Holmes splashed in an extremely deep wing three to make it a one-possession game with 53 seconds remaining.
 
Holmes scored 11 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter versus nationally-ranked Kentucky and was a perfect 3-for-3 from distance.
 
Only 122 points from reaching 1,000 for her career, Holmes has notched double figures in eight of 11 games this season. She scored 746 of her 878 career points across three seasons at DePaul and last season at South Dakota.
 
The Bruins (5-6) closed out their challenging non-conference schedule with another tightly-contested contest against a top-20 opponent. To date, Belmont has played the second-most difficult schedule in the nation according to the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET). All six of the Bruins' losses have been to teams ranked in the top 35 of the NET rankings.
 
Up Next
Belmont has a nine-day break from game action for Christmas before beginning MVC play this weekend at home with Bradley. Tipoff from the Curb Event Center in Nashville is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon. The Valley opener will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
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.