Troy native Tuti Jones and her teammates on the Belmont Bruins will play Minnesota in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) Championship Wednesday night at 4 p.m. in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPN2. 

Jones and the Bruins lost to Murray State in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship on March 16, missing out on the NCAA Tournament, but have made a deep run in the WBIT instead. This will be the first time that Belmont has played in a postseason championship in school history. The WBIT is in its second year and is affiliated with the NCAA. 

After beating Middle Tennessee in the first round, Belmont earned a one-point win over Northern Arizona in the second round and then dominated Sun Belt Conference runner-up James Madison in the quarterfinals. Jones exploded to score 26 points with three steals in the win over JMU. Belmont defeated Villanova in the semifinals. 

During the WBIT, Jones is averaging 14.5 points, 2.5 steals, 2.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game in the tournament. Jones earned All-Conference honors this season for the third time and All-Defense for the second after averaging 10.2 points, 2.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Jones became just the 35th player in Belmont history to eclipse 1,000 career points and she also moved into second place all-time in career steals. She also holds the school record for career steals during the NCAA era of Belmont Basketball. 

Jones is the daughter of longtime legendary Charles Henderson High School girls’ basketball coach Dyneshia Jones-Elder. Tuti Jones was a star player at CHHS, earning All-State and Super All-State honors in 2019 and 2020 along with leading the Lady Trojans to a State Championship as a senior. 

Jones and the Bruins will play Minnesota at 4 p.m. today on ESPN2 in the WBIT Finals.