FINAL SCORE: Belmont 80, Western Kentucky 52

RECORDS:
Western Kentucky "Hilltoppers" — 3-11 Overall / 1-2 Sun Belt Conference
Belmont "Bruins" — 4-13 Overall / NCAA Division I Independent

PLAY-BY-PLAY HIGHLIGHTS:
First Half — WKU's David Boyden opened the scoring with a jumper, but Belmont came right back with a three by B.J. Proffitt at 18:06 and the Bruins never trailed in the period ..... a three by Tremain Rowles at 12:43 tied it up 3-3 but WKU could not get back on top ..... it was a 16-14 game after a baseline jumper by Western's Lee Lampley at 9:09, but then Belmont got on a roll, outscoring the Toppers 25-4 before Brian Allenspach scored inside for WKU at 1:25 ..... Belmont's Dougie Webb then nailed a FG at the buzzer to send the Bruins in with a 43-20 edge ..... in 25-4 run, Belmont made good on 6 three-pointers, 3 of those by Jay Lannin ...... Lannin, who came into game averaging 10.2 ppg, led all scorers at the half with 19 (including 4 threes) while David Boyden paced WKU with 6 ...... Belmont just 2 turnovers in the half.

Second Half — WKU chipped away at the lead in the first 10 minutes of the half, narrowing the gap to 18 (51-33) on a FG by David Boyden at 11:58 ..... but Belmont nailed a pair of threes (one by Michael Couey at 11:07 and the 2nd by B.J. Proffitt at 10:00) followed by an inside bucket by Omari Booker at 9:44 to climb back up on top by 26 (59-33) ..... closest WKU got the rest of the way was 21 — 59-38 at 9:08 ... 61-40 at 7:47 ... and 63-42 at 6:35 ..... big Belmont lead was 29 on 2 occasions -- 76-47 at 2:49 and 78-49 at 1:02.

COACHES' QUOTES:
WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton — "Belmont shot the basketball very well .....They had five shooters in the game and they came out shooting the ball so well. They were very tough to guard ..... And, we had trouble scoring ourselves. We lacked the patience we needed after they started hitting all those threes."

NEXT GAME — The Hilltoppers host Sun Belt rival South Alabama Saturday (Jan. 22) at 7 pm, closing out a 7-game, 42-day road swing ..... The Bruins play at Alabama A&M Thursday (Jan. 20; 7:30 pm CST).

NOTES — Belmont came into game ranked 3rd in nation in 3-pointer FGs made per game (10.1) and had 8 threes at the half — 12 threes on the night is 2nd highest total vs. WKU this season (Florida International had 13 in 93-63 win
over WKU in Miami on Jan. 8) ...... career-high 14 points for WKU freshman David Boyden (previous high was 10 on 2 occasions) ..... Belmont's 60% (30-50) shooting from the floor is best against WKU this season (previous high 52.5% by Vanderbilt) and WKU came into game allowing opponents combined total of 40% FG shooting for the year.