Belmont Battles In Paint, Tops Tennessee State

Photo taken by Ava Gorney

Men’s basketball continued its strong start to the season after an 87-79 win over Belmont’s neighbors to the northwest, the Tennessee State University Tigers.  

The win was the Bruins’ 10th straight against the Tigers, as well as their 24th over the last 27 meetings between the two teams. 

Belmont trailed for only 39 seconds while holding a TSU team fresh off a 101-point performance to just 35% shooting from the field. 

Head coach Casey Alexander credited his defense.  “I think when our half-court defense was set, we were really good. I think the first 11 or 12 minutes of the game, the defense looked really good,” Alexander said. 

Belmont’s first five points of the game came from redshirt sophomore Drew Scharnowski off a free throw and two emphatic dunks, the second of which gave the Bruins a lead that would not be relinquished for nearly 21 minutes. 

Meanwhile, the Tigers’ offense was stuck in a lull, and they shot 0-8 from the floor with five turnovers during a 5-minute stretch in the first half when Belmont raced out to its biggest lead of the game, a 21-9 advantage with 9:30 to go in the period. 

Belmont was still leading by double figures with 4:43 to play in the half when junior Brigham Rogers, its leading scorer at the time, split a pair of free throws and checked himself out of the game due to an apparent injury.  

He would return in the second half, but not before TSU went on a 13-4 run to end the first half and cut their deficit to 34-32. 

At the end of the first half, Belmont was shooting just 9% from three-point range and 62.5% from the free-throw line to go along with nine turnovers on offense despite hovering near 50% shooting from the field. 

Belmont’s only three-pointer in the first half came from redshirt freshman Eoin Dillon after almost 14 minutes of gameplay.  

Triples started to fall after halftime for graduate student Tyler Lundblade, who connected on the first of his four triples less than one minute into the start of the second half.  

However, TSU’s shooting also improved after halftime, and they took a 40-39 lead with 16:49 to go, which was their first lead not trailing since 2:27 into the game. 

After a free throw knotted things at 40, Scharnowski got the ball on a fast break and soared for a vicious dunk with a chance for a three-point-play. 

The raucous Curb crowd quieted for a moment after Scharnowski fell hard on his back, but then he stood up and brought the student section back alive for his free throw that gave Belmont a three-point lead.   

Back-to-back Lundblade threes helped stretch the lead for the Bruins, who were up 50-40 with 14:32 remaining after going on an 11-0 run in response to the Tigers taking the lead.  

The Bruins would fend off the Tigers from there, and despite a late push from TSU to make it just a three-point lead with 1:36 left in regulation, a dunk from redshirt sophomore Sam Orme put the finishing touches on the game. 

Overall, it was a dominant day in the paint for the Bruins. They shot 68% on twos to go along with 50 points in the paint. 

Belmont’s performance in the paint helped mask its 11 missed free throws, 25% shooting from beyond the arc and 17 turnovers. 

“We left a lot out there tonight,” Alexander said, “The takeaway from this game, more than anything, is just that we have to be better at initiating offense and taking care of the ball.” 

Alexander balanced the good with the bad.  “Between the turnovers and not shooting it well from three, we still had a good night. We scored 87 points, shot over 50% from the field. Our two-point percentage was off-the-charts good and we got to the free throw line a lot,” Alexander said.    

Alexander also brushed aside concerns about three-point shooting after the Bruins were 11 of 44 from distance across the first two games of the year.  

“I said before the season started, this might be our best three-point shooting team we’ve ever had if you just look at the number of shooters. Some of it is shot quality, but long-term we’re going to be fine from the three-point line,” Alexander said. 

The Bruins are back in action on the road against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles on Nov. 15 before hosting Lipscomb on Nov. 19 for the first Battle of the Boulevard of the season.  -   

This article was written by Sam Dicus