(St. Louis, MO) – For the second year in-a-row the Ohio Valley Conference regular season champion is relegated to a three-letter tournament. Last year it was Murray State losing a heart breaker to Belmont and this year the Bruins felt the gut wrenching pain of a Music City Madness upset.
Craig Bradshaw – belmontbruins.com
Rick Byrd’s Bruins (20-11) have won eight conference championships in the last 11 years, but will be missing the big dance this year due to the 97-96 overtime loss to Austin Peay.
Heading to the National Invitation Tournament is a good consolation prize. Having to play on the road at Georgia … not so much. The Bulldogs (19-13) are a high scoring team with four players averaging double figures in scoring. Headlining that group are 5-10 guard J.J. Frazier (17.0) and 6-8 Yante Maten (16.2). Frazier and Kenny Gaines have combined to bury 157 three-pointers and Head Coach Mark Fox can deploy eight players that are taller than 6-5.
Byrd’s team responds with a smaller, but skilled team led by the nation’s leading field goal percentage shooter in Evan Bradds (72%) who averages 17.8 points per game and was the Player of the Year in the OVC. Craig Bradshaw (16.4), the OVC’s pre-season player of the year, Taylor Barnette and Amanze Egekeze have been in a lot of pressure situations for Belmont.
The wild card for Belmont to prevail might be point guard Austin Luke. The sophomore hands out over six assists per game and finds a way to get his older teammates the ball for high percentage shots.
Wednesday’s game tips at 6 pm Central time and is Belmont’s fourth appearance in the NIT.
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