WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 73, SIUE 43
BELMONT 73, SIUE 43
NASHVILLE - Behind balanced scoring and strong team defense, Belmont University men's basketball defeated SIU Edwardsville, 73-43, Wednesday night.
With the victory, Belmont secures its fourth consecutive regular season conference championship (Atlantic Sun '10, '11, '12; OVC '13), and sixth regular season conference championship in the last eight years.
Belmont also secures the No. 1 seed in the upcoming OVC Tournament.
The Bruins held SIUE scoreless the opening 3:02 of the game in building a 7-0 lead.
After Kris Davis got the visiting Cougars within 16-9, Belmont went on a 12-0 run over the next four minutes, capped by an Ian Clark short jumper, making the score 28-9 with 10:34 left in the first half.
The Bruins continued to get high percentage shots late in the half, but shots started to rim off. Meanwhile, Davis helped SIUE close within 39-28 by halftime.
Belmont shot 57 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes - including 6-for-15 from three-point distance.
A Davis layin and a three-pointer from Tim Johnson got SIUE back within 41-33 with 18:58 left, before the Bruins broke free with determined play on both ends.
As the Bruins held SIUE to one basket over the next 17 minutes, the drives of Kerron Johnson and interior play of Blake Jenkins pushed Belmont back out to a 20+ point lead.
All told, Belmont held SIUE to 4-for-22 shooting in the second half, while forcing 11 turnovers.
Jenkins led Belmont with 17 points and 11 rebounds, his third career double-double. Clark had 14, Trevor Noack 13 and JJ Mann 11.