Belmont Rides Second-Half Scoring Wave in Rout of Centre
After another slow start offensively, Belmont went on two long scoring runs to secure a 75-45 win over Centre College Thursday night.
The Bruins led their Division III opponent by only seven points at the half, but they went on to close out the game with a 24-4 run over the last nine-plus minutes to pull away for good.
“A lot of credit to Centre. I would say they played better than us for 25, 28 minutes of that game,” head coach Evan Bradds said. “They got a good team. They’re physical, and they play really hard and really together.”
Centre jumped out to a quick 3-2 lead and held it for over eight-and-a-half minutes, leading by as much as seven.
But Belmont wouldn’t stay down for long, going on a 15-0 run for nearly seven minutes before Centre snapped the streak with a jumper with 8:06 to play in the half.
Sophomore Aleksa Ristic scored or assisted on nine of those 15 points, including an electric alley-oop slam from the Serbian guard to the 7-foot-1 German center, junior Vincent Neugebauer.
Ristic posted a career-best performance with 10 points, seven assists, five rebounds and one block, all new highs.
“Basically, I just bring the physicality and try to involve my teammates as much as possible,” Ristic said. “Get me going, get them going, and just push the pace to make the game fast. They didn’t have an answer for that.”
During the 24 minutes Ristic was on the court, Belmont outscored Centre by 30. But in the 16 minutes he sat, the teams were dead even.
“He brought a level of aggression, and when I say aggression, I don't just mean jacking shots,” Bradds said. “He played physically, he got in the paint, he got others involved and he just played a well-rounded basketball game.”
Despite Ristic’s brilliance, the Bruins headed into halftime up only seven after a disjointed first half where Belmont allowed eight offensive rebounds and turned the ball over nine times.
The nine turnovers underscore a recurring problem for the Bruins in these first two games, as they’ve committed 34 turnovers and had just 25 assists.
“We have to, first off, value the ball, and I think we have to be more physical on offense with the ball,” Bradds said. “We get into the paint, we land on two feet, and we just kind of throw it. We have to value it. We have to play with stronger hands.”
The Bruins had a much cleaner second half, posting a 7:6 assist-to-turnover ratio while also adding 12 offensive rebounds and four steals en route to outscoring Centre by 23.
Belmont’s defense held Centre without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes and scoreless for over eight-and-a-half minutes, closing out the game on a 24-4 run.
The only four points Centre scored came from sophomore Max Burtner, who has a unique connection to Belmont basketball.
Burtner grew up attending Belmont basketball games and camps. His father is former men’s basketball standout and Belmont Hall of Famer Wes Burtner, and his mom is former Belmont women’s basketball player Candice Mitchell Burtner.
“It was a ton of fun, and it was an awesome moment because my dad played at Belmont, but he never actually played on this court, so I actually have more points on this court than he does,” Burtner said.
The Bruins now turn their focus to Tuesday’s game at Lipscomb in Bradds’ first Battle of the Boulevard as head coach.
“It's going to be a great game, there’s going to be a lot of people there, and it’s going to be fun,” Bradds said. “It doesn’t matter what our record is, what their record is, who’s got a good offense, or who’s got a good defense; it’s going to be 40 minutes of a high-level game.”
This article was written by Sam Dicus
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