Women's Basketball Visits Missouri State Thursday Night

 
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Embarking on its first Missouri Valley Conference road trip of the season, the Belmont University women's basketball team begins 2025 at Missouri State Thursday night. Tipoff from Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield, Missouri, is slated for 6:30 p.m.
 
The conference road test will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Corey Riggs (play-by-play) and Carly Stubblefield (analyst) on the call. The game can also be heard on Belmont Bruins Radio, available online, with Dr. Rich Tiner providing live play-by-play of the action. Live stats can be followed by visiting BelmontBruins.com.
 
What's Bruin

• The Bruins (6-6, 1-0 MVC) earned their ninth consecutive victory in a conference opener Sunday afternoon with a 69-61 win over Bradley inside the Curb Event Center. Head coach Bart Brooks improved to 8-0 in conference openers with Belmont's triumph.
• Facing four top-20 opponents and six power conference teams, the Bruins went 5-6 during their strenuous non-conference schedule.
• Belmont has held its opponent under 62 points in all six of its victories this season.
• The Bruins' strength of schedule is currently ranked as the third-most difficult in the country. Only Alabama State and Southern University have played a more difficult schedule according to the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET).
• In Sunday's win over the visiting Braves, Belmont raced out to a 25-6 lead and led 41-19 at the break before being outscored 42-28 in the second half. On the heels of a nine-day break from game action, the Bruins never trailed and led from the opening basket onward. Belmont led by double digits from the 5:25 mark of the first quarter until the final 10 seconds.
• The Bruins assisted on 14 of their 23 made field goals versus Bradley and scored 21 points off 14 Brave turnovers.
• After tying her career high of 23 points in Belmont's last two non-conference games against Southeastern Conference opponents (No. 16/15 Kentucky and Mississippi State), sophomore guard Jailyn Banks led all Bruins with 18 points this past Sunday. She was an efficient 5-for-7 from the field and sealed the victory with her lone three-pointer in the closing minute. Banks scored eight of Belmont's 15 points in the fourth quarter and tallied 11 of her 18 points in the second half.
• All three of Banks' career-high 23-point performances have been against SEC opponents away from home. The Spring Hill, Tennessee (Middle Tennessee Christian School), native also put up 23 points in her collegiate debut at Missouri to begin the 2023-24 season.
• Graduate guard Tuti Jones, who is the Bruins' NCAA era career steals leader, collected a pair of steals in Sunday's win to move into second place all-time in program history with 288 takeaways. She also scored 12 points against Bradley.
• Senior forward Kendal Cheesman has reached double figures in five-straight games.
• Six times this season Belmont has had at least four Bruins score in double figures.
• Five different Belmont players scored in double figures in the Bruins' battle at 16th-ranked Kentucky on Dec. 20.
• Junior guard Emily La Chapell scored a career-high 26 points on a career-best 12-for-17 shooting in Belmont's decisive, 65-52 victory over mid-state foe Middle Tennessee on Dec. 7.
• Both La Chapell and graduate guard Kendall Holmes have reached double figures in eight of 11 games this season.
• On Nov. 17, the Bruins nearly upset top-15 ranked Ohio State inside the Curb in Nashville. Belmont was knotted up with the Buckeyes at 63 with 30 seconds remaining and held a nine-point, 59-50 lead with just over five minutes to go.
• The Bruins' season opener was at 13th-ranked Kansas State on Nov. 7.

Newcomer of the Week

• Following her valiant effort against the nationally-ranked Wildcats in Lexington, Kentucky, Holmes was named MVC Newcomer of the Week on Monday, Dec. 23.
• Collecting Belmont's first weekly conference award of the season, Holmes scored 18 points at top-20 ranked Kentucky on 6-for-10 shooting, including going 4-for-6 from beyond the arc.
• A native of Plainfield, Illinois (Benet Academy), Holmes sparked the Bruins' comeback attempt as she scored 11 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting from distance. It was her deep wing three-pointer that got Belmont within a possession in the final minute.
• Holmes is only 117 points from reaching 1,000 for her career.

Nothing but NET

• With the NET rankings released on a daily basis since the beginning of December, the Bruins sit at No. 51.
• Last season, Belmont finished 71st in the NET.
• All six of the Bruins' losses this season have been against teams ranked in the top 35 of the NET.
• Belmont owns the highest NET ranking in the 12-team MVC. Both Murray State at No. 54 and Northern Iowa at No. 74 are also ranked in the top 75 of the NET.
• The Lady Bears enter Thursday ranked 95th in the NET, which is the fifth-highest NET ranking in the Valley.

Conference Dominance

• Since the 2012-13 season, the Bruins have compiled a remarkable 175-35 (.833) record in conference play and won 12 combined championships, including regular season and tournament titles.
• Coach Brooks is a ridiculous 115-15 (.885) in conference action in eight seasons and has never lost more than three league games in a single season.
• Altogether, including conference tournaments, Belmont has gone 199-41 (.829) against league opposition across 13 seasons.

MVC Preseason Poll

• The Bruins were 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.
• Belmont has finished first or second in its conference each of the last nine seasons.

Early Tests Against Some of the Nation's Best

• The Bruins went up against three teams who are ranked in the top 15 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 its season-opening visit to now No. 12/11 K-State, Belmont hosted now No. 10/9 Ohio State and traveled to No. 14/14 Duke on Nov. 21.

A Winning Program

• The Bruins are 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.
• Belmont has won the 16th-most games of any NCAA Division I women's basketball program (1,089).
• 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 24th in the eighth CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25^® poll of the regular season. Missouri State is receiving 11 votes in this week's mid-major poll.

Last Season

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

Experience and Youth

• Returning starters Jones, Cheesman and 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, senior Cheesman and graduate transfer guards Jacee Busick (Charlotte) and 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. Through 12 games, Holmes is the Bruins' second-leading scorer (11.4 PPG).
• Over the summer, Belmont also welcomed a trio of talented freshmen with guard Quinn Eubank (Union, Ky.), forward Hilary 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 the Bruins' 72-68 victory at Troy. He has led Belmont to a remarkable record of 178-61 (.745) and the Bruins are an astonishing 130-18 (.878) against conference opponents, including league tournament 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, Belmont is 79-14 (.849).
• The third-fastest head coach to 100 career victories in Division I women's basketball history, Brooks ranks among the top 20 of active Division I head coaches in terms of winning percentage.

Among the Toughest Schedules in the Nation

• The Bruins annually play one of the best non-conference schedules in the country and this season is no different. Six of Belmont's 11 non-conference opponents this season were from power conferences. Combined with their MVC slate, the Bruins face 10 teams who won 20 or more games last season and have a date with nine programs who finished in the top 100 of the final 2023-24 NET rankings.
• Additionally, Belmont takes on 12 national postseason teams from a year ago, including six who reached the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Bruins at Home

• The Bruins are 105-15 (.875) at home since the start of the 2015-16 season.
• Belmont has a home winning percentage of .749 (203-68) inside the Curb since the arena opened prior to the 2003-04 season.
• Under coach Brooks, the Bruins are an exceptional 81-14 (.853) inside the Curb.
• In conference play, Belmont has been even more dominant at home, going 93-12 (.886) since 2012. In seven seasons, coach Brooks has lost only six league games at the Curb with a 59-6 (.908) record.
• The Bruins went 13-2 at home last season, securing the most home wins in a single season since 2019-20.

Versus Missouri State

• Thursday will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two teams with Belmont holding a 3-2 advantage in the series. However, the Lady Bears have won each of the last two matchups, including a 63-48 win in the semifinals of the 2024 MVC Tournament in Moline, Illinois.
• In the Bruins' last visit to Springfield last February, Missouri State handed Belmont a 73-54 setback.
• Belmont won the first three games in the series, including a 68-58 triumph in Springfield on Feb. 19, 2023, in the Bruins' first season in the Valley.
• All five games in the series have been decided by at least nine points.
• Belmont was held to 23.9 percent shooting and only 11 field goals in its last visit to Missouri. The Bruins went 3-for-20 from beyond the arc but earned 36 free throws and converted 29 foul shots. Banks was the lone Belmont player to reach double figures as she set the program's single-game free-throw record by going 17-for-20 at the line.
• In the second semifinal of Hoops in the Heartland last March, the Bruins were limited to 33.3 percent (16-of-48) shooting.
• Belmont defeated the Lady Bears 66-55 at home on Jan. 26 last year behind Cheesman's double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds and La Chapell's 13 points.

About the Lady Bears

• Led by third-year head coach Beth Cunningham, Missouri State is coming off a 69-62 road loss at the University of Illinois Chicago in its MVC opener last Sunday.
• The Lady Bears went 8-3 in non-conference play with their three losses all away from Missouri at the Bruins' former Ohio Valley Conference foe UT Martin (74-66) on Nov. 19 and versus Florida State (97-66) and Texas Tech (72-69) at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Like Belmont, Missouri State picked up a road win at Wichita State in November. The Lady Bears topped the Shockers 82-77 on Nov. 13.
• Picked fifth in this year's MVC Preseason Poll, Missouri State nearly reached the NCAA Tournament last March but lost to top-seeded Drake in the MVC Tournament championship game on a buzzer beater. The Lady Bears were the No. 3 seed for Hoops in the Heartland after going 15-5 in MVC play.
• Missouri State also received an at-large bid to the inaugural WBIT last year where they fell 74-69 to eventual champion Illinois.
• The Lady Bears feature 5-foot-4 senior guard Lacy Stokes, a member of the Preseason All-MVC First Team and the 2023-24 MVC Newcomer of the Year. Stokes is one of four Missouri State players averaging double-figure scoring (12.6 PPG) and leads the Valley in steals (2.5 SPG), not to mention leading the team in assists (4.4 APG).
• Sophomore 6-foot guard Kyrah Daniels is also averaging double-figure scoring (11.9 PPG), to go along with 2.3 assists per game.
• Both senior 6-foot-3 forward Sarah Linthacum, a Missouri transfer, and sophomore 5-foot-9 guard Kaemyn Bekemeier are averaging 10 points per outing. Linthacum leads four Lady Bears averaging at least 5.0 boards per contest with a 5.3 rebounding average.
• Missouri State's 38.5 three-point percentage is 12th-best in the nation.

Up Next
The Bruins head to Carbondale, Illinois, Saturday to take on Southern Illinois at the Banterra Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the MVC tilt will be broadcast on ESPN+. Next weekend, Belmont hosts UIC Friday and Valparaiso Sunday at the Curb.
 
Ticket Info
Season tickets are on sale 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.