CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Redshirt-freshman Nick Hopkins scored 21 points and buried seven 3-pointers, while Amanze Egekeze also added 21 points to lead Belmont (9-5, 1-0) to a 94-72 win Thursday night in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams.
 
Hopkins drained 7-of-11 from beyond the arc in 28 minutes off the bench, sinking his first four treys of the game. Egekeze, who went a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor, knocked down three 3-pointers as the Bruins finished with 14 treys on the night.
 
"Belmont is a really good team and very well-prepared, but the things they did is nothing we haven't seen," said SEMO head coach Rick Ray. "We failed to follow our assignments and didn't pay attention to detail on the scouting report. We didn't help ourselves."
 
OVC defending regular-season champion Belmont raced out to a 15-3 lead in the first 4:32 of the contest and the Bruins never trailed. Kevin McClain and Dylan Windler combined for three 3-pointers to key the early stretch.
 
Grayson Murphy's jumper pushed the Bruins lead to 39-21 with 6:44 left in the first half before the Redhawks put together a 13-5 jaunt to trim Belmont's lead to 44-34. Denzel Mahoney and Ledarrius Brewer each buried a 3-pointer and Isaiah Gable's two free throws later capped the surge at the 3:18 mark.
 
Belmont then headed into the locker room with a 47-36 advantage.
 
Brewer's 3-pointer managed to narrow Belmont's lead to 53-45 with 15:50 remaining, but that was as close as SEMO would get the rest of the way.
 
Seth Adlesperger's layup gave the Bruins their biggest lead at 94-67 with a minute left before they closed out their 22-point win.
 
Belmont shot 68 percent (17-of-25) from the field in the second half and finished with a .600 clip (36-of-60) for the game. The Bruins made 14 or more 3-pointers in a game for the sixth time this season, as well. In addition, they dished out 21 assists with eight coming from Austin Luke.
 
Windler and McClain joined Hopkins and Egekeze in double figures with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Windler led the Bruins with nine rebounds.
 
Brewer paved the way for SEMO with a career-high 21 points. He shot 7-of-11 from the field and 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Mahoney followed with 19 points and eight rebounds, and Daniel Simmons pitched in 11 points. Jonathan Dalton dished out six assists.
 
The Redhawks fell to 10-17 all-time in OVC openers.
 
SEMO returns to action when it hosts Tennessee State Sunday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., CT, at the Show Me Center.