LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With the new year comes a new season.

On New Year's Day, the Bellarmine University women's basketball team (2-11) will open Atlantic Sun Conference play by welcoming Queens (6-5) for a 6:30 p.m. (ET) contest. The Knights will follow that Thursday night outing by hosting West Georgia (7-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Bellarmine's 2026 portion of the regular-season schedule is comprised entirely of ASUN contests. The Royals and the Wolves are the first two of 18 conference games.

Bellarmine will be playing a home game for the first time since hosting Eastern Illinois on Nov. 29. The Knights concluded the 2025 portion of their schedule with five straight road games, the last four of which comprised their entire December slate.

ABOUT QUEENS
Queens concluded its nonconference slate Dec. 20 with a 60-35 home victory over USC-Upstate for its third win in the last four games. Forward Brenae Jones-Grant leads the ASUN in field-goal percentage (60.8) while being tied for third in scoring (15.1) and tied for first in rebounding (8.7). She has three double-doubles along with a 28-point performance against South Carolina State and a 27-point outing against Western Carolina. Guard Ana Barreto is averaging 12.1 points and her 29 3-pointers made are tied for third in the league.

ABOUT WEST GEORGIA
West Georgia will make its ASUN debut Thursday at Eastern Kentucky before its matchup with the Knights. The Wolves will take a three-game winning streak into EKU. UWG boasts three of the top 10 scorers in the ASUN in guard Asia Donald (15.9, second), forward Jasmine Jones (15.1, tied third) and guard Sydne Tolbert (12.8, tied 10th). Forward Destiny Jones is tied for first in the conference in rebounding (8.7). Tolbert, guard Grace O'Gara, Donald and Jones all rank in the league's top 15 in minutes played, all seeing roughly 30 minutes of action or more per game.

KNIGHTS NOTES
• Bellarmine was picked ninth, West Georgia 10th and Queens 11th in the ASUN preseason coaches' poll.
• Bellarmine's Monique Reid is making her conference debut as a head coach.
• Bellarmine and Queens are meeting for the fourth time in series history. The Knights own a 3-0 lead, including a 71-67 victory last season in Charlotte. BU is 1-0 at home against QU, although this is their first matchup in Knights Hall (the previous contest in Louisville, in 2023-24, was at then-home arena Freedom Hall).
• In last season's game, Bellarmine trailed by four with less than a minute remaining before rallying for the win behind a game-ending 9-1 run.
• Bellarmine will be hosting West Georgia for the first-time ever. The teams made their series debut last season in Carrollton, where the Knights erased an eight-point deficit with approximately two minutes remaining to force overtime, where they secured an 86-78 win.
• Bellarmine has played only four home games thus far (1-3 in those), but six of the team's first eight ASUN contests are in Knights Hall.
• A plague of injuries limited Bellarmine to either seven or eight players the last eight games.
• Bellarmine prepared for ASUN play with what was likely the most difficult five-game stretch that any team in the conference scheduled this season. The Knights played at Louisville, Illinois, Chattanooga, Arizona and Notre Dame. Louisville is currently No. 13 in the AP poll, Notre Dame is No. 18 and Illinois is receiving votes. Earlier this season, BU also played at current No. 19 Ohio State.
• Rose Jamison's two top scoring performances of the season came in the last two games. The redshirt junior guard/forward scored a game-high 20 points against Arizona and followed with a team-high 17 against Notre Dame. Before coming to Bellarmine, Jamison became Napa Valley College's all-time leading scorer after amassing 1,112 points in slightly over two seasons.
• Sophomore guard Ava Smith is tied for fifth in the ASUN with 23 3-pointers made.

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