Belmont women’s basketball improved to 3-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference after winning 67-52 against the University of Illinois Chicago on Friday afternoon.
Belmont got out to a hot start in the Curb Event Center despite the snowy weather outside.
The Bruins struck early with a 13-0 run in the first 7 minutes.
Graduate guard Tuti Jones led the offensive charge with five early points.
The Flames struggled early to get anything going offensively but would answer late in the first with a 3-pointer from graduate forward Keimari Rimmer and a layup from graduate guard Danyel Middleton to not go scoreless in the quarter.
Belmont closed out the quarter with four straight points from sophomore guard Jailyn Banks to give the Bruins a 12-point lead.
The Flames had a much better offensive showing in the second quarter putting up 13 points, but the Bruins came out and pushed the pace to extend their lead even more.
Senior forward Kendal Cheesman and junior guard Emily La Chapell had a combined 19 of the Bruins’ 26 second quarter points.
La Chapell finished the game with 17 points and was the Bruins leading scorer on the night.
“Being the aggressor, I feel like, on the offensive end and on the defensive end, being playmakers on both ends of the ball, that'll be really important to continue,” said La Chapell.
Four of the Bruins starters ended the night scoring in the double digits.
The Bruins ended the second with a 25-point lead going into the second half.
The third quarter was closer than the first two, but the Bruins still outscored the Flames 15-11.
The Flames started to play tougher defense halfway through the quarter, pressing and trapping the Bruins ball handlers making the Bruins work harder coming down the floor.
The Flames carried this energy over to the offensive end and opened the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run to cut the Bruins lead down to 17.
Belmont hit back-to-back threes from Jones and La Chapell to extend the lead and snuff out the Flames rally.
In the final minutes Belmont looked to its bench to close out the game, but some costly mistakes ignited the Flames.
The Flames closed out on an 11-3 drive that was largely pushed by a number of Belmont turnovers in the final minutes of the quarter.
“I thought we had really good energy to start, and our focus was good. It was on the right things,” said head coach Bart Brooks. “We've still got work to do. We’ve got to do a better job of finishing games and closing it out.”
In spite of this, the Bruins still got away with the win and will now look to extend their win streak as they continue conference play against Valparaiso University on Sunday.
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This article was written by Braden Simmons.
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