By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - After flexing its offensive muscles in its nonconference finale against Tennessee Wesleyan, Tennessee Tech women's basketball will get its first taste of Ohio Valley Conference competition in the Music City, where it will take on Tennessee State and two-time defending champion Belmont.
Tech will get Tennessee State on Thursday, a 5:30 p.m. tip from TSU's Gentry Center. The Tech-Belmont game is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon in the Bruins' Curb Event Center.
Tech comes into its league opener riding a three-game winning streak, and looking to build on a 4-1 mark from the month of December.
The Golden Eagles owe a large part of their December success to their improvement on the defensive end. Tech allowed just 54.6 points per game, and held opponents to an average 33 percent from the field over the five contests, solid upticks from their November marks (60.8 ppg, 39.1% FG in six games).
Those numbers are down to 59.5 points and a 36.3 FG percentage allowed for the season, which is third-best in the OVC for both categories.
TTU's triple-digit output against Wesleyan was backed by an exceptional shooting night from behind the arc. Seven different Golden Eagles combined for 14 team triples, which tied for the third-most in a game in program history.
The free throw shooting has climbed as well, as Tech is now making 73.4 percent of its attempts from the charity stripe (174-of-237).
Kim Rosamond is 1-1 in her first two conference openers at TTU, with a 74-63 victory over Southeast Missouri in her first-ever OVC game, and a 74-67 loss to Morehead State to start the league slate last year.
TTU is 3-1 against TSU during Rosamond's tenure, with the lone loss coming in last season's first meeting, 76-66, in the Gentry Center.
A victory at Belmont would be Tech's first since Feb. 2, 2013.
TENNESSEE STATE PROFILE
Tennessee State is led by second-year head coach Jessica Kern, who produced six wins in her first go-round, with a 4-14 mark in the conference.
While the Tigers have yet to find the win column this year, they have played one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country; highlighted by road dates with fifth-ranked Louisville, Depaul and Vanderbilt, along with a three-day, three-game gauntlet of Power 5 opponents (Arkansas, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh) over Thanksgiving weekend.
TSU features two of the top scorers in the Ohio Valley in guard Taylor Roberts and forward Tia Wooten, who average a combined 27.8 of State's 58.7 points per game.
Roberts, an All-OVC Newcomer Team selection last year, ranks fifth in the conference at 15.5 points per game, and has six games with 20 or more points this season. She also ranks eighth in the league in free-throw percentage (79 percent), ninth in three-point percentage (38.2%) and ninth in steals per game (2.1).
Wooten, who was a first-team all-conference selection in 2017-18, averages 12.3 points per contest, which is 12th-best in the league. She is also sixth in free-throw shooting (80%).
Forward Jadon Wrightsell is in the league's top 10 for rebounding (7th), averaging 7.1 per game.
SERIES NOTES
Tech has won 56 of its 70 meetings against Tennessee State, which computes to TTU's highest winning percentage in any OVC series longer than 25 games. (.800).
After 20 straight head-to-head victories by an average margin of 22 points, Tech would suffer its first loss to TSU on Feb. 21, 1994, a 59-43 decision in Nashville. The Tigers, who would go on to win the OVC that season, beat TTU again that year in the OVC Tournament, 71-63.
From 1996-2006, Tech would go on another streak of dominance, winning 19 of the final 21 meetings in the Bill Worrell era.
State won five of the next seven renewals starting with the 2006-07 season, but Tech took back the momentum on Feb. 15, 2010, and has won 14 of 17 matchups leading up to present day.
Kim Rosamond has won three of her four dates with TSU, starting with a season sweep of the Tigers in 2016-17. Freshman Akia Harris averaged 11 points and 6.5 rebounds over those two games.
Tech fell in the first meeting last season, but found redemption in the rematch, prevailing 68-65 in Cookeville. Jordan Brock had 15 points in the game, and Mackenzie Coleman had nine and nine rebounds, which supported a monster 23-point, 10-rebound effort from Yaktavia Hickson.
BELMONT PROFILE
Belmont has played just six seasons in the Ohio Valley Conference, but has produced an outstanding 78-20 record in that time. It has won 10 games or more in every conference season.
The last three seasons have been particularly impressive, as the Bruins have won back-to-back-to-back conference titles, complete with perfect 16-0 and 18-0 league campaigns in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Counting three consecutive victories to end league play in 2016, BU is riding a 37-game regular-season conference unbeaten streak heading into their matchup with Jacksonville State on Thursday.
Second-year coach Bart Brooks has guided the Bruins, who OVC pollsters picked to win the league, to a 7-4 nonconference record to start 2018-19. That schedule included victories over Tulsa, Wright State and Middle Tennessee, and close losses at Clemson (65-62), and at No. 10 Tennessee (84-76).
Junior forward Ellie Harmeyer and 2018-19 OVC Preseason Player of the Year Darby Maggard pace the Bruin attack with 14.3 points and 14.0 points per game, respectively. Senior guard Jenny Roy, who joined Maggard on the All-Preseason Team, also averages double figures with 10.3 points per game.
Roy has been arguably the best all-around player in the league to this point, ranking second in the league in assists per game (4.9), third in field goal percentage (.557), fourth in three-point FG percentage (.423) and fifth in steals (2.4).
Harmeyer and Roy are also the fifth- and sixth-best rebounders in the conference, averaging 7.8 and 7.5 per game. The Bruins are the second-best rebounding team in the conference, hauling down 40.2 per game.
The other two starters, Maddie Wright and Maura Muensterman, score 8.9 points and 7.8 points per game, respectively, to fill out a well-balanced starting lineup.
SERIES NOTES
The Tech-Belmont series goes back much further than the teams' OVC ties, as the Bruins beat the Golden Eagles twice in TTU's first season, 1970-71, and two more times the following year. The series currently stands at 25-20, with Tech leading.
Each team went 4-4 over the next eight matchups, before TTU took ownership of the series in the second meeting of the 1975-76 season.
Tech ripped off 17 series wins in a row, a run that lasted more than 30 years, before ending with a 68-62 BU victory on Nov. 20, 2008.
Tech won five straight following that loss, including the first three OVC contests in 2013. Belmont, however, has not lost since then, as winners of the last 10.
That streak nearly ended in 2016 in Cookeville. After two Samaria Howard three-pointers sent the game to both its first and second overtimes, Darby Maggard broke Golden Eagle hearts with the game-winning jump shot with 8 seconds left in 2OT to send the Bruins home victors, 80-79.
Tech gave league champion BU everything it could handle in the teams' last meeting on Feb. 10, 2018, falling 68-60 in Cookeville. Akia Harris (12 points) and Mackenzie Coleman (10 points) joined Shug Hickson (17 points) in double figures that night.
Live Stats/Broadcast Information
Live Stats
ESPN+ Stream
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
