The men’s basketball team completely destroyed Kennesaw State 83-44 on Wednesday night in the Bruins final home game of the decade.
The Owls came into the night with a record of 1-9. Belmont has proven to be one of the toughest home teams to play as they wrap up the decade with a record of 117-9 at the Curb Event Center.
Wednesday’s matchup proved no different as the Bruins scored 51 points in the second half and only allowed Kennesaw State to score 24 points in the second half.
The first half started off extremely slow with a whole lot of back-and-forth. Kennesaw State even had the lead during a few possessions in the first 10 minutes. But a few Adam Kunkel three’s helped give the Bruins a 32-20 lead over the Owls at halftime.
The second half was a complete blowout as the Bruins went on a 16-0 run in the first 6 minutes of the half while Kennesaw State only scored 2 points in the first 8 minutes of the half.
Once again, the team relied heavily on the showmanship of Kunkel as he scored 24 points. He scored 13 in the first half alone.
Graduate transfer Tyler Scanlon had one of his best nights scoring 12 points and rebounding three.
Being up by 20 points less than 10 minutes into the second half allowed coach Casey Alexander to play some of his inexperienced players like freshman Ben Sheppard and Mitch Listau. While only having 4 points, Sheppard showed off his athleticism with great drives to the rim as well as rebounding three. Listau on the other hand scored 10 points, a career-high for the redshirt freshman.
Sophomore Grayson Murphy had a quiet game as he scored 7 points, rebounded three and assisted four in only 18 minutes of play.
The Bruins shot 61 percent from the field and 47 percent from behind the arc even with only three players scoring in double digits.
Belmont improves to 8-3 on the year and will finish up its non-conference schedule against who may be the two best teams it will face all season, Alabama and Western Kentucky.
The Bruins first head to Huntsville on Saturday to face the Crimson Tide and then to Bowling Green to play Conference-USA powerhouse Western Kentucky on Dec. 28.
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Photos by Bronte Lebo.