INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTVF) — Belmont is on the verge of its first ever national postseason championship. The Bruins will play Minnesota for the WBIT title Wednesday at 5 p.m. CT in Indianapolis.
It’s a remarkable postseason run that nearly ended before it even got started.
Belmont trailed Northern Arizona by 21 points in the second round of the tournament. The deficit was still 14 with less than 3:00 to play, but the Bruins closed on a 19-4 capped by Jailyn Banks’ game-winning reverse layup with 0.3 seconds left.
Survive and advance. That’s the goal in any postseason tournament, and the improbable 81-80 victory kept Belmont’s season alive.
“I don’t think we’ve used the term survive and advance this year with our team, ever,” Belmont Head Coach Bart Brooks said. “I mean it’s what’s said this time of year, but for us we’re more, let’s just make this last as long as we can because we love what we’re doing. I think that showed itself when we were down (to NAU) by 14 with 2:52 to go.”
It wasn’t the first time this Belmont team overcame adversity.
The Bruins started the season 6-7 after going 0-6 against power conference teams in a brutal non-conference schedule, losing several tight games.
But they responded with 10 straight wins to put themselves in a position to play in the postseason for a ninth straight year.
“The test of a team isn’t when shots are going in and everything feels great,” Brooks said. “It’s when everything’s going wrong what does your team do. Do they point fingers? Do they go in different directions or do they stay connected? I think this group, probably more than any group I’ve coached since I’ve been here, has earned the right to play for a championship.”
And Belmont will get that shot against the Golden Gophers Wednesday, having extended the season to the final day of the WBIT.
After edging NAU, the Bruins hit their stride, making 18 three-pointers as they blew out James Madison 90-45 on the road in the quarterfinals. They followed that up with a 66-57 victory over Villanova out of the Big East in Monday’s semifinal behind a career-high 25 points from Banks.
A win over Minnesota would mark the first national postseason championship in the successful history of Belmont basketball on both the men’s and women’s side.
“We’ve put in so much work over the season,” Belmont Guard Kendall Holmes said. “The adversity that we’ve faced, the challenges that we’ve faced and we really stuck together as a team. Now we’re pushing forward and we want to go get that championship.”
