Bruins Host Brown for Home Opener Friday Night

 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After a season-opening trip to top-10 ranked Oklahoma, the Belmont University women's basketball team opens its home portion of the 2025-26 schedule with Brown University Friday night. Tipoff inside the Curb Event Center in the Music City is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
 
The home opener will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Dr. Rich Tiner (play-by-play) and former Bruin guard Hannah Harmeyer ('19) (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.
 
Belmont basketball t-shirts will be given away to all fans in attendance, while supplies last, beginning one hour before tipoff.
 
What's Bruin

• The Bruins (0-1) make their 2025-26 Nashville debut after challenging the sixth-ranked Sooners on opening day in Norman, Oklahoma.
• Belmont returns to the Curb after its historic comeback against Northern Arizona University in the second round of the 2025 Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) on March 23 earlier this year. It was the latest game in a season ever played at the Curb.
• The Bruins went on to reach the championship game of the WBIT. It was Belmont's deepest national postseason run in any sport.
• For the second time in four seasons, the Bruins are the preseason favorites to win the Missouri Valley Conference. Belmont captured a regular season championship in its first season in the Valley in 2022-23.
• Including last season, the Bruins have reached the MVC Tournament championship game two of the last three years.
• Belmont went 26-13 last season and 15-5 in the MVC, tying for third in the final league standings.
• The Bruins' three returning starters – graduate guard Tuti Jones, junior guard Jailyn Banks and senior guard Emily La Chapell – in addition to graduate transfer guard Avery Strickland (Tennessee/Pittsburgh), were named players to watch by the MVC.
• Jones, Banks and La Chapell were the only three players to start all 39 games for Belmont last season.
• The Bruins return eight total letter winners and feature seven newcomers, including five freshmen – guard Rylie Beers (Littleton, Colo.), guard Kate McGinnis (Kimberly, Wis.), forward Dacarra Ward (Memphis, Tenn.), forward Leah West (Greensburg, Ind.) and guard Tatum Woodson (Minnetonka, Minn.) – and two transfers – Strickland and junior center KK Brodie (Pepperdine).

Last Time Out

• Belmont fell 84-67 at Oklahoma but held a three-point, 54-51 lead late in the third quarter thanks to a 13-0 run.
• Five consecutive points from sophomore guard Sanaa Tripp gave the Bruins their first lead of the game and Belmont was tied with the Sooners as late as the 9:35 mark of the fourth quarter.
• The Bruins began 5-for-7 from beyond the arc but struggled from the field in the final stanza, going 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) from the floor in the fourth.
• Tripp tied her career high with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting, while fellow sophomore Hilary Fuller scored a career-best 12.
• Banks finished with a team-high 16 points, three steals and three assists.
• Sophomore guard Quinn Eubank made her first career start and hit two first-half three-pointers.
• Both Brodie and Strickland started in their Belmont debuts.
• Freshman West saw action on the floor and snagged two rebounds in her first collegiate game.
• It marked the fifth time in nine seasons the Bruins have faced a top-25 opponent on the road to begin their campaign.
• Freshman Rylie Beers' older sister, Raegan, is an All-American center for Oklahoma who had a game-high 29 points on 13-for-17 shooting and 10 rebounds.

A Winning Program

• In its 58th season as a program, Belmont has claimed the 15th-most victories in NCAA Division I women's basketball (1,109).
• The Bruins entered 2025-26 with the 30th-best all-time winning percentage (.658).
• Belmont is one of only nine teams in the nation to have won 20-plus games for 10-straight seasons. UConn, South Carolina, Baylor, Iowa, NC State, Indiana, South Dakota State and Florida Gulf Coast are the others.
• The Bruins' 73.1 winning percentage (226-83) over the previous 10 seasons is the highest of any Division I women's basketball program in the state of Tennessee.
• Belmont is the only school in the nation to win 20-plus games for 10 consecutive seasons in both women's and men's basketball.

A Championship Program

• The Bruins (11) are one of only six programs in the country to have won 10 or more combined conference championships, regular season and tournament, over the last nine seasons. UConn (18), Florida Gulf Coast (16), South Carolina (13), South Dakota State (11) and Princeton (10) are the others.
• Since the 2012-13 season, Belmont has won 12 combined conference championships, including regular season and tournament titles.
• The Bruins have won 16 total conference championships – nine regular season and seven tournament titles – in Belmont's NCAA era.

National Postseason Success

• The Bruins have claimed seven national postseason wins in the last five years, including back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament round of 32 in 2021 and 2022.
• Belmont has earned a national postseason bid in 12 of the last 13 seasons, including six trips to the NCAA Tournament (2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016).
• The Bruins also reached the Big Dance in 2007 after winning the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament.
• Belmont also participated in the last two WBITs and the 2023 WNIT.
• Playing into April for the first time in school history, the Bruins rattled off four wins in the 2025 WBIT. After taking out nearby Middle Tennessee in the opening round, Belmont overcame a 21-point deficit against Northern Arizona in the second round. The Bruins then doubled up top-seeded James Madison, who was an NCAA Tournament bubble team and receiving votes in both national polls, by 45 points on the road in the quarterfinals. In the WBIT semifinals inside historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Belmont ousted BIG EAST Conference mainstay Villanova.
• The Bruins' comeback against the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona in the WBIT second round last March tied for the largest deficit overcome to win any NCAA postseason game in Division I women's basketball history.

Conference Dominance

• Belmont has finished in the top three of its conference in 13 of the last 14 seasons, including each of the last 10.
• The Bruins have played in a conference tournament championship game eight of the last 10 years.
• Since the 2012-13 season, Belmont has compiled a remarkable 189-40 (.825) record in conference play.
• Altogether, including conference tournaments, the Bruins have gone 215-47 (.821) against league opponents across the last 13 seasons.

Head Coach Bart Brooks

• For the third-straight year, ninth-year head coach Bart 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.
• In nine seasons, coach Brooks has compiled a remarkable 198-69 record. His 74.2 winning percentage ranks among the top 20 of active head coaches in Division I women's basketball.
• No other current Division I head coach with eight seasons or fewer under their belt has won more games than coach Brooks.
• Coach Brooks is a ridiculous 129-20 (.866) in conference action with nine combined conference championships, including regular season and tournament titles. He has never lost more than five league games in any given season and has finished no worse than third across two different conferences.
• Including conference tournament games, coach Brooks is an astonishing 146-24 (.859) against conference opponents.
• Over the last eight postseasons, coach Brooks has gone 24-11 (.686).
• In the key months of February and March under coach Brooks' direction, Belmont is 92-19 (.829).
• Coach Brooks was the third-fastest head coach to 100 career victories in Division I women's basketball history (Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech and Karl Smesko, Florida Gulf Coast).

Challenging the Nation's Best

• Coach Brooks and the Bruins annually play one of the toughest non-conference schedules and this season is no different.
• At least six of Belmont's 11 non-conference opponents are receiving votes in both the preseason Associated Press (AP) Top 25 and preseason USA TODAY Sports/Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Coaches Poll. The Bruins take on a trio of preseason top-10 teams, including hosting No. 7/6 Duke (Dec. 20) after traveling to both No. 6/7 Oklahoma (Nov. 3) and No. 8/9 Tennessee (Nov. 13). Belmont also hosts preseason No. 24/20 Kentucky (Dec. 14).
• The Bruins face no fewer than six NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago during their non-conference slate – Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio State, Princeton, Kentucky and Duke. Of those, five reached at least the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament and three made it to the Sweet 16 with the Blue Devils continuing on to the Elite Eight.
• Playing in the 2025 Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship in Nassau, Bahamas, during Thanksgiving week, Belmont may also see West Virginia, who is receiving votes in both preseason national polls and reached the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament last March.

Mid-Major Rankings

• The Bruins are ranked 14th in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 preseason poll and are ninth in the SB Nation Mid-Major Madness Other Top 25 preseason rankings.

At the Curb

• Belmont is 114-17 (.870) at home since the start of the 2015-16 season.
• The Bruins have a home winning percentage of .752 (212-70) inside the Curb since the arena opened prior to the 2003-04 season.
• Under coach Brooks, Belmont is an exceptional 90-16 (.849) at the Curb.
• In conference play, the Bruins have been even more dominant at home, going 100-14 (.877) since 2012. In his first eight seasons, coach Brooks lost only eight league games at the Curb with a 66-8 (.892) record.
• For four-straight seasons and nine of the last 10, Belmont has won 10 or more games at the Curb.

Versus Brown

• Friday night will be only the second meeting between the Bruins and Bears.
• The two teams met on Nov. 24, 2000, in Bloomington, Indiana, as part of Indiana University's Fazoli's Classic. Brown won the game 78-62.

Against the Ivy League

• Belmont's matchup with the Bears a quarter century ago was the Bruins' only other game against an Ivy League member.

About the Bears

• Brown begins its season at Belmont after going 12-15 overall in 2024-25 and tying for fourth in the final Ivy League standings with a 6-8 mark.
• The Bears were picked fifth in the Ivy League Preseason Poll.
• Brown boasts 10 returners, including Second Team All-Ivy performer Grace Arnolie, a 5-foot-8 senior guard who averaged 14.8 points and 3.7 assists last season.
• Seven of the Bears' 10 returners saw action in at least 20 games last season.
• Brown also features six newcomers, including transfers Charlotte Climenhage (Nevada) and Monét Witherspoon (Tufts).
• The Bears are led by sixth-year head coach Monique LeBlanc.

Up Next
The Bruins travel to nationally-ranked Tennessee next Thursday. Tipoff from Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville is slated for 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET. The primetime game will be broadcast on national TV on the SEC Network.
 
Season Tickets
Season tickets, which include all Belmont women's and men's basketball home games, are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting BelmontBruins.com/Tickets or calling 615-460-BALL. Flex pack plans for the 2025-26 season are also on sale and can be purchased here.
 
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.