KNOXVILLE – The Belmont Bruins made history a year ago with the Nashville school’s first win in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
They found a way to top that.
Destinee Wells knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:02 left in double overtime, and Belmont knocked off No. 5 seed Oregon 73-70 Saturday for the Bruins’ second straight win as a No. 1 12 seed to open an NCAA tourney.
Belmont (23-7) upset 14th-ranked Gonzaga in the sterile Texas bubble with no fans on hand last year amid lingering coronavirus concerns. This time, the Bruins won their 13th straight and 19th in 21 games with a victory made all the more precious by being able to celebrate immediately with family, friends and fans at Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena.
“It’s so hard to rank them, because last year we made history,” Belmont senior forward Conley Chinn said. “It was the first time it had been done in our program. But I mean, just today, you kind of can’t get it better than that. That was pretty sweet.”