Five Bruins Garner Recognition from the Missouri Valley Conference

ST. LOUIS – Leading the Belmont University women's basketball team to a top-two finish in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season for the third time in four years, Jailyn Banks, Tuti Jones, Avery Strickland, Hilary Fuller and Sanaa Tripp have all been selected for postseason accolades. A sophomore guard, Tripp has been named 2025-26 MVC Sixth Player of the Year, while Banks, Jones, Strickland and Fuller have been chosen for the All-MVC Teams.
 
Junior guard Banks and graduate guards Jones and Strickland have been tabbed All-MVC Second Team as sophomore forward Fuller has been placed on the All-MVC Third Team.
 
Jones is also a member of the MVC All-Defensive Team for the third-straight year, and Strickland has been voted onto the MVC All-Newcomer Team.
 
The All-MVC Teams and individual year-end superlatives are voted upon by the league's head coaches, media members and women's basketball communications directors.
 
Ranking in the top 10 in the Valley in both scoring (15.3 PPG) and assists (3.6 APG), Banks finished the regular season tied for third in steals per game (1.8). The Spring Hill, Tennessee (Middle Tennessee Christian School), native has scored in double figures in 20 of the 23 games she's played in this season and has turned in six 20-point performances, which are tied with Strickland for the most by a Bruin.
 
A member of the 2025 Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) All-Tournament Team, Banks was named to the All-MVC Third Team each of the last two seasons. The 2023-24 MVC Freshman of the Year became Belmont's 37th 1,000-point scorer in the home matchup with Murray State on Jan. 31. Banks was also selected to the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team earlier this week.
 
The 2026 MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Jones was chosen to the All-MVC Third Team each of the last two seasons. The only Bruin in Belmont's NCAA era to record 1,500 points, 500 assists and 700 rebounds, Jones leads the Valley in steals (3.1 SPG) with 97 takeaways on the year. Only five steals from setting the Bruins' NCAA era single-season steals record, Jones broke Belmont's all-time steals record on Jan. 15 during a victory at Indiana State. In addition to her program-record 445 career steals, Jones is second in scoring in the Bruins' NCAA era (1,748 points).
 
Jones also leads the MVC this season with a 2.93 assist/turnover ratio and is seventh in the conference in assists (3.8 APG). Across all divisions of NCAA basketball, Jones is the nation's current leader in games played (168) and is fourth among active career steals leaders. The Troy, Alabama (Charles Henderson HS), native was named both MVC and Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 8-14 after scoring a season-high 24 points on 6-for-11 shooting, grabbing a season-best 10 rebounds, dishing out a team-high five assists and coming up with a game-high three steals in a home outing with then top-15 ranked Kentucky.
 
Making an immediate impact as a graduate transfer from the University of Tennessee, Strickland leads Belmont in field goal percentage (.449) and made three-pointers (54). Across the Valley, Strickland's 1.7 made threes per game are tied for seventh most and she is 10th in the league in free-throw percentage (.790). A native of Knoxville, Tennessee (Farragut HS), Strickland leads the Bruins with 406 points on the season, averaging 13.1 per game.
 
On Feb. 2, Strickland was tabbed MVC Newcomer of the Week after tallying 23 points and snagging eight rebounds in Belmont's overtime road win at Evansville and scoring 18 points and grabbing seven boards versus the Racers at home. A double-figure scorer in all but four MVC games, including the last eight regular season contests, Strickland leads the Bruins with 22 double-figure outings. Like Banks, she has registered 20 points on six occasions. Strickland also earned a spot on the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team.
 
Closing the regular season 16th in scoring in the Valley (14.0 PPG), Fuller is fourth in the MVC in blocks (1.5 BPG) with 41 stuffs. Emerging as one of Belmont's top playmakers in her second collegiate year, Fuller has turned in 20 double-figure scoring games and has constructed five 20-point performances in conference play. A native of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (All Hallows' School), Fuller has scored nearly 400 points this season and is averaging 4.6 rebounds per contest while shooting 40.7 percent from the field. Earlier in the week, Fuller collected MVC Scholar-Athlete Team honors.
 
Stepping into a much larger role her sophomore year, Tripp has been the Bruins' No. 1 option off the bench the majority of the season. Making 31 starts, although just five in MVC play, Tripp has posted 11 double-figure scoring games, including erupting for a career-high 25 points on 9-for-11 shooting in Belmont's home win over Northern Iowa on Jan. 11. In her breakout performance, she went 5-for-6 from beyond the arc and added a career-best five assists. The Covington, Georgia (Newton HS), native tallied the second-most steals (44) of any Bruin during the regular season and is averaging 7.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
 
In conference play, Tripp averaged 8.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.4 assists while shooting 40.1 percent from the floor.
 
Up Next
Belmont begins postseason play Friday evening in the quarterfinals of the Credit Union 1 MVC Tournament in Coralville, Iowa. As the No. 2 seed, the Bruins will take on either seventh-seeded the University of Illinois Chicago or 10th-seeded Evansville, at 6 p.m. inside Xtream Arena. The quarterfinal matchup will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
Credit Union 1 MVC Tournament
The 2026 Credit Union 1 MVC Tournament will be held Thursday-Sunday, March 12-15 in Coralville, Iowa, at Xtream Arena. All-session tournament passes can be purchased here. Rooms are also available for booking at the official Belmont fan hotel – Drury Inn & Suites.
 
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.