Bruins Host UIC Friday Afternoon at the Curb

 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Following its first Missouri Valley Conference road trip of the season last weekend, the Belmont University women's basketball team returns to action in the Music City Friday afternoon with the University of Illinois Chicago visiting the Curb Event Center. Due to the forecasted winter storm, which is expected to impact travel conditions in middle Tennessee, tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. The weekend opener was originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
 
The Valley home matchup will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Dr. Rich Tiner (play-by-play) and former Bruin forward Ellie Harmeyer Strutz ('20) (analyst) on the call. The game can also be heard on Belmont Bruins Radio, available online. Live stats can be followed by visiting BelmontBruins.com.
 
What's Bruin

• Belmont (7-7, 2-1 MVC) defeated Southern Illinois 79-66 for its first MVC road victory of 2024-25 last Saturday afternoon in Carbondale, Illinois. The Bruins' first win of the new year came on the heels of a 57-55 nail-biting loss at Missouri State a week ago.
• Belmont has won each of its last two home games, including a 69-61 triumph over Bradley to begin MVC play on Dec. 29.
• 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 67 points in all seven of its victories this season.
• The Bruins' strength of schedule is currently ranked as the sixth-most difficult in the country. Only Southern University, Notre Dame, Alabama State, Purdue and South Carolina have played a more difficult schedule to date according to the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET).
• Last Saturday on the road against the Salukis, Belmont shot a season-high tying 50 percent from the field and was a season-best 40.9 percent from beyond the arc. Four different Bruins reached double-figure scoring and Belmont scored 42 second-half points inside the Banterra Center. The Bruins led for all but a little over two-and-a-half minutes of the game and assisted on 20 of their 28 made field goals.
• Junior guard Emily La Chapell distributed a career-high seven assists at Southern Illinois last weekend and Belmont came on late. After the host Salukis evened up the score at 54 late in the third quarter, the Bruins outscored Southern Illinois 25-12 across the last 12 minutes of play. In fact, Belmont used an outcome-defining 21-5 scoring run to take a 16-point lead with three minutes remaining.
• After tying her career high of 23 points in both of the Bruins' last two non-conference games against Southeastern Conference opponents (No. 16/15 Kentucky and Mississippi State), sophomore guard Jailyn Banks has led Belmont in scoring in its first three MVC games. She had 18 points against the Salukis and went a perfect 8-for-8 at the free-throw line, not to mention dishing out four assists and coming up with a pair of steals.
• 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 scored a season-high 16 points in last Saturday's win at Southern Illinois, going 6-for-7 from the floor and hitting three key three-pointers in succession. The Bruins' NCAA era career steals leader with 293 takeaways, Jones moved into second place all-time in program history with two steals in the MVC opener versus the Braves.
• Both Jones and Banks have scored in double figures in five-straight games.
• Senior forward Kendal Cheesman put together an impressive stat line against the Salukis last Saturday with 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting, eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal.
• Graduate guard Jacee Busick has played a season-high 19 minutes in each of her last two outings.
• Seven times this season Belmont has had at least four players score in double figures.
• Five different Bruins scored in double figures in Belmont's battle at 16th-ranked Kentucky on Dec. 20 to close out non-conference play.
• La Chapell scored a career-high 26 points on a career-best 12-for-17 shooting in the Bruins' decisive, 65-52 win over mid-state foe Middle Tennessee on Dec. 7.
• La Chapell has reached double figures in nine of 14 games this season.
• On Nov. 17, Belmont nearly upset top-15 ranked Ohio State inside the Curb in Nashville. The Bruins were 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.
• Belmont's 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, graduate guard Kendall Holmes was named MVC Newcomer of the Week on Monday, Dec. 23.
• Collecting the Bruins' 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 Belmont's 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 the Bruins within a possession in the final minute.
• Holmes is only 103 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, Belmont sits at No. 59.
• Last season, the Bruins finished 71st in the NET.
• All seven of Belmont's losses this season have been against teams ranked in the top 90 of the NET.
• The Bruins own the highest NET ranking in the 12-team MVC. Both Northern Iowa at No. 68 and Murray State at No. 69 are also ranked in the top 70 of the NET.
• UIC enters the weekend ranked 158th in the NET, which is the seventh-highest NET ranking in the Valley.

Conference Dominance

• Since the 2012-13 season, Belmont has compiled a remarkable 176-36 (.830) record in conference play and won 12 combined championships, including regular season and tournament titles.
• Head coach Bart Brooks is a ridiculous 116-16 (.879) in conference action in eight seasons and has never lost more than three league games in a single season.
• Altogether, including conference tournaments, the Bruins have gone 200-42 (.826) against league opposition across 13 seasons.

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.

Early Tests Against Some of the Nation's Best

• Belmont 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 their season-opening visit to now No. 12/10 K-State, the Bruins hosted now No. 9/9 Ohio State and traveled to No. 14/14 Duke on Nov. 21.

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 (1,090).
• 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 receiving the second-most votes (31) of teams not ranked in the ninth 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 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 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 14 games, Holmes is the Bruins' third-leading scorer (10.8 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 179-62 (.743) and the Bruins are an astonishing 131-19 (.873) 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 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 UIC

• Friday will be the fifth all-time meeting between Belmont and the Flames with the Bruins winning the first four matchups, including a 70-65 triumph in last year's MVC Tournament quarterfinals in Moline, Illinois.
• Belmont has twice defeated UIC in the Curb, including a 69-61 win over the Flames in last season's MVC opener on Dec. 30, 2023. Both Jones (17) and Banks (16) scored in double figures, tallied five assists and came up with two steals in the home victory to cap 2023.
• In last March's Hoops in the Heartland meeting, the Bruins overcame a minus-12 deficit on the boards (36-24) and Jones poured in 16 points and earned a career-high tying seven steals. UIC shot 51 percent in the postseason contest, while Belmont shot 49.1 percent but missed 13 free throws (10-of-23).

About the Flames

• The Flames (4-8, 1-2 MVC) won their Valley opener in the Windy City against Missouri State, 69-62, but dropped both of their games last weekend in Iowa. UIC fell 86-63 at Drake before being defeated 75-64 at Northern Iowa, despite having a 20-point lead late in the first half and early in the third quarter.
• Led by third-year head coach Ashleen Bracey, the Flames went 3-6 in non-conference play with a road win at Northern Illinois (69-66) and home victories over Division III North Central College (113-53) and Ohio (91-45).
• UIC was picked to finish sixth in the MVC in the preseason after going 10-10 in league play last year and earning the No. 7 seed for the MVC Tournament. The Flames went 18-16 overall last season and earned an at-large bid to the WNIT where they were defeated in the opening round by the Ohio Valley Conference's Southern Indiana.
• Senior 6-foot guard/forward Makiya Williams, an All-MVC Third Team selection last year and member of the 2023-24 MVC All-Newcomer Team, leads UIC in scoring (11.8 PPG).
• Graduate 6-foot-3 forward Jaida McCloud leads the Flames in rebounding (6.4 RPG) while averaging 8.8 points per game on 58.4 percent shooting from the floor.
• Graduate 5-foot-10 forward Keimari Rimmer, who has come off the bench in all but one game this season, was a Preseason All-MVC Second Team choice and earned a spot on last season's MVC All-Newcomer Team. She is averaging 8.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per outing.
• Graduate 5-foot-5 guard Kristian Young leads the team in assists (3.3 APG).

Up Next
The Bruins welcome Valparaiso to the Curb Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip. The MVC home game will be broadcast on ESPN+. Next weekend, Belmont makes the trek to Iowa to take on Drake next Thursday and Northern Iowa on Sunday, Jan. 18.
 
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.