Belmont women's basketball wins OVC Tournament, makes sixth NCAA Tournament in seven years

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — For the sixth time in the past seven seasons, Belmont’s women’s basketball team is bound for the NCAA Tournament.

The top-seeded Bruins beat No. 2 seed Tennessee Tech 51-29 in Saturday’s OVC Tournament championship game behind 22 points from star sophomore Destinee Wells. It was their 12th victory in a row and earned another league title for the road, further solidifying Belmont as the OVC's preeminent women’s basketball program as the university exists for the Missouri Valley Conference.

But first, Belmont (22-7) heads back to the Big Dance in an attempt to improve on last season, when Coach Bart Brooks’ Bruins won the program’s first NCAA Tournament game, beating Gonzaga in the opening round as a No. 12 seed before losing to Indiana.

"It's going to be against a real good team," Brooks said, "but we just want a chance in that tournament. We know how good we are. We don't feel like we've played our best basketball against that level. In our nonconference, we were not nearly the team we are now. I can't wait to get our group on the floor against a really good team in that tournament and just see what happens."

Tennessee Tech (20-10), amid a solid sixth season under former Vanderbilt assistant coach Kim Rosamond, fell short of what would have been its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000.

Saturday’s championship game was hardly an offensive showcase for either team. Much of the way, it was a grueling, tense, defensive stalemate.

At halftime, Belmont was shooting 25.8% percent (8-of-31) and had scored a whopping five points in the second quarter. And yet, the Bruins were winning, 17-14.

That’s because Tennessee Tech was shooting 16% (4-of 25). The Golden Eagles had followed up a scoring drought of nearly eight minutes with another of more than six minutes. Reminder: Only 20 minutes are contained in one half of basketball.

And yet, the Golden Eagles were only down three at intermission.

Both teams had plenty of hope in spite of offensive struggles. One side was bound to eventually string together a few buckets and be able to inch ahead for good, and in the third quarter, one of them did.

Wells, who’d been relatively quiet in the first half, heated up with 10 points in a third quarter that ended with Belmont in front 38-26, having seized control for good.

"We're playing some of our best basketball right now," Wells said. "We're looking to go into the (NCAA) tournament and make history again."

Mackenzie Coleman scored seven points to lead Tennessee Tech, which ended up shooting 17.3% (9-of-52) and was shut out for all but the final 12 seconds of the fourth quarter.

Belmont's 51 points were the fewest ever for a winning team in an OVC women's title game.

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Belmont women's basketball beats Tennessee Tech to win OVC Tournament