Charles Henderson High School graduate Tuti Jones has put together a stellar basketball career with the Belmont Bruins and that play has continued into her senior season.

Earlier this month, Jones was named the MVC Player of the Week after scoring a career-high 29 points against Murray State. In the game, she also recorded her first double-double of the season with 10 rebounds. The Troy native knocked down 10-of-15 shots and added two steals and four assists to her stat line in the 96-89 win. 

“I think the season’s going pretty well,” the ever humble Jones said. “We have a couple of big games coming up and I’m pretty excited for that.”

Jones has put together a career at Belmont that has seen her surpass 1,000 career points, becoming just the 35th player in Belmont Women’s Basketball history to do so. She also moved into second place all-time in career steals at Belmont this year. There’s only one record that Jones has ever thought about, however.

“I think (my career) has gone pretty good but I don’t really pay much attention to the milestones or the records or anything,” she said. “The only (personal) goal of mine I ever had was that I wanted to beat my mom’s steals record, so I was excited to be able to do that. Other than that, I just want to win games.”

Jones’ mother, Dyneshia Jones-Elder, was a longtime state champion winning coach at Charles Henderson, but before that she was a record-setting player at Troy University. During her Trojan career, Jones-Elder set the school’s single-season steals record and also recorded 179 career steals. Jones has recorded 321 career steals. 

During her Belmont career, Jones has twice earned All-Conference honors, twice been named Conference Player for the Week, earned Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and made All-Defense in 2024. She also earned MVC Scholar-Athlete honors and Academic All-District honors in 2024. She’s averaged 10.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, three assists and 2.7 steals per game. 

This season, Jones is averaging 10.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game. 

“I just want to keep winning,” Jones said. “I would love to win a conference championship and make the NCAA Tournament. I really just want us to be the best version of us we can be.”

Jones and the other seniors for Belmont are pushing their teammates to reach their goals.

“We’re just trying to get the (young teammates) to understand that every day, and every game, has it’s own challenges and and a life of its own and you have to understand that you need to concentrate on being 1 percent better every day,” she said. “If you do that, you can have a chance to be the best you can that you can be by the end of the season.”