Jacobi Wood And Tuti Jones Lead Belmont Over Lipscomb In Battle Of The Boulevard Double Header

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Pictured: Belmont’s No. 24 Jacobi Wood. Photo: Courtesy of Belmont Athletics

The Belmont Bruins took both wins from the Lipscomb Bisons in the annual Battle of the Boulevard. The women’s teams played a gritty game with Belmont coming up victorious 67-62 while Belmont’s men’s team blew out Lipscomb 94-65.

Sophomore Tuti Jones led the Bruins to the first of the night after scoring a career-high 29 points, 16 of which came in the first half. She was 10-for-13 and carried Belmont when they were down 29-23 at halftime.

Jones also had six steals which was a massive factor in the Bruins win. Lipscomb turned the ball over 20 times and Belmont was able to score 16 points off those turnovers.

Former Bruin and current Lipscomb graduate transfer Maddie Cook led the team in points, scoring 20 off the bench in her return to the Curb Event Center. Cooke’s performance kept the Bisons in contention throughout the final quarter.

With the comeback win, the Bruins currently have a 49-26 lead in the all-time series and 27-11 lead over Lipscomb in the Division I era.

Pictured: Belmont’ No. 0 Tuti Jones. Photo: Courtesy of Belmont Athletics

The highly anticipated men’s game was not as close as the women’s game as the Bruins took an early lead and never faltered.

Belmont’s 3-point offense was as powerful as ever as the team shot 41.5 percent from behind the arc. Sophomore Jacobi Wood played his best game of the season so far, scoring 17 points with five 3-pointers.

Eight minutes into the first half, the Bruins already secured a massive 22-9 lead over the Bisons who were without their best player Ahsan Asadullah. Asadullah averages 17 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per game. The Bisons struggled immensely on both sides of the court without their star-center.

The Bruins were able to capitalize on the Bisons poor shooting, having 36 rebounds. Lipscomb only shot for 26 percent from the 3-point line and was only 1-10 from the arc at halftime.

Along with Wood, senior Nick Muszynski and junior Ben Sheppard had big games. Sheppard scored 16, shooting 4-8 from the 3-point line. Muszynski scored 15 points and played a major role on defense having eight rebounds and three blocks.

Belmont has won 17 of the last 19 meetings in this legendary rivalry and has cut Lipscomb’s all time series lead to 75-74 with Belmont having a chance to tie it next season.

Steven Boero
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