The winning streak continues for the Bucs in Johnson City.
The ETSU men’s basketball team improved its home winning streak to 18 games after a 71-58 victory over the Wofford Terriers Wednesday night in Memorial Center.
The streak includes games played at Brooks Gym and Freedom Hall and is currently tied for the sixth longest in the nation with Oklahoma and McNeese state.
“We are more comfortable here and our kids are confident and like playing at home,” said head coach Ed DeChellis. “It’s good to get off the road and get our confidence back … hopefully this win tonight will give us that.”
After holding only a four-point lead at halftime, 33-29, and going back-and-forth throughout most of the second half, the Bucs went on a 10-0 run beginning at the 9:59 mark with two free throws by sophomore forward Zakee Wadood.
Wadood led ETSU with his fifth career double-double with 17 points and 16 rebounds to go along with four blocked shots.
“Zakee did a great job and I couldn’t have asked for more than that, he played excellent tonight,” DeChellis said. “He does so much and gets his hands on so many balls.
“He does a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.”
Wadood attributes the Bucs’ second half run to ETSU stepping up its defense, giving them more offensive opportunities.
“We weren’t hitting our shots (in the first half) and in the second half we were able to score off our defense like we do in practice,” Wadood said.
The Bucs extended their lead to 13, the largest of the game, on two free throws by Ryan Lawson, making Lawson a perfect 31-of-31 from the line on the season.
Wofford, however, began to chip away and got within 10 points on a dunk by Lee Nixon from a Justin Stephens’ pass. A three-pointer by Nixon with 2:25 to play kept his team within eight after two free throws by ETSU’s Tiras Wade.
The Bucs came right back and brought their lead back up to 10 on a fast break dunk by Dimeco Childress, making the score 66-56 with 1:45 to go.
Childress got the Bucs off on the right foot, beginning the second half with a three-pointer and put the exclamation point on the Bucs’ victory with two dunks in the final 1:45.
“In the second half, especially, we wanted to come out and not slack off,” said Childress, who had his 10th 20-point game of his career, scoring an even 20 on 9-of-15 shooting from the floor and 2-of-7 from three-point range.
“We came out and I hit that three-pointer and it kind of jumped started our offense.”
Childress, who has been the Bucs’ lone senior on the court, has taken much more of a leadership role with the encouragement of his coach.
“I’ve had to and coach has asked me to step up vocally to lead the younger guys,” he said.
Wade, who joined Wadood and Childress in double-figures in the scoring column with 16, also joined the dunk-fest in the final minutes with the pass coming from Childress.
One streak, however, did come to an end on Wednesday night, that being Lawson’s perfect free throw streak (31-31) for the season.
After going 4-for-4 from the line throughout the game, Lawson missed his final two with 38 seconds remaining as the Bucs had the game well in hand, leading 71-56.
The misses may be attributed to some of Lawson’s teammates talking to him while he stood at the free throw line.
“You don’t talk to someone while shooting a free throw,” DeChellis said. “Some of the young guys don’t know that.”
The Bucs will host Chattanooga on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Notes: Sophomore center Cory Seels has withdrawn from ETSU and returned home to Charleston.
“He didn’t think he wanted to be here and felt he needed a change in his life,” DeChellis said. “He’s had some bad luck and wanted to go home to sort out what he needs to do.

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