Belmont Men’s Basketball defeated the Valparaiso Beacons 71-64 on Tuesday night.
From the start of the game, the Bruins struggled to rebound the ball with the Beacons able to get four shots in one possession.
Both teams also struggled with ball control, resulting in a combined 20 steals.
But junior guard Tyler Lundblade scored three 3-pointers in a row to give the Bruins a 13-4 lead five minutes into the first half.
Lundblade’s actions did not go unmatched with Valparaiso guard Justus McNair combatted the Bruins defense with back-to-back 3-pointers.
As the Beacons began employ a more physical defense to slow the Bruins and close the score gap, the Bruins started a strong scoring drive with a dunk by junior forward Aidan Noyes.
At half, the Bruins led the Beacons 40-30.
While Belmont’s scoring was spread across multiple players, McNair had 14 of the Beacons’ 30 points in the first half.
The second half began with Valparaiso bringing strong defense and going on a 11-3 scoring run for the first five minutes of the half.
The Bruins struggled with ball control and lost the ball to the Beacons multiple times.
But the second half was much back-and-forth scoring and missed shots from the Bruins as the team shot only 20% with 3-pointers, considerably lower than its season average of 38.2%.
The momentum flipped as with only minutes left in the game, a technical was called on McNair, leading to Lundblade making both free throws and the Bruins getting the ball back.
In the end, the Bruins pulled away and secured the 71-64 win, moving Belmont to the second spot in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Even if the win wasn’t his team’s usual high-scoring performance, head coach Casey Alexander was pleased with his team’s performance.
“It was a different style for us. I was so proud of our players for how gritty they were,” Alexander said. “We had a pretty bad second half offensively, which requires a really good second half defensively. And we got it.”
The Bruins will return Saturday at Evansville for another conference matchup.
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This article was written by Greer Patten
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