Dimeco Childress wanted to do something special in his final game at the Mini-Dome and the Buccaneer senior came through with one of the best performances of his career.
Childress scored a career-high 42 points, breaking Greg Dennis’ Memorial Center record of 36 points from 1990, in ETSU’s 91-77 victory over Western Carolina on Saturday.
It was the Bucs’ (16-9, 9-5) sixth straight win and the third time in ETSU’s last four home games that Childress has gone for a career-high in points. Childress scored 35 against Georgia Southern (Feb. 2) and 36 versus Davidson (Feb. 9).
“It was great, I planned to come out and get 50 (points),” said Childress, who shot 16-for-27 from the field and 5-for-11 on his three-point attempts. “I wanted to do something big in my last game here.
“I wanted to put on a show the best I could and I got emotional . I’m going to miss this place.”
Childress, who came into Saturday’s game ranked sixth in the Southern Conference in scoring (16.3 ppg), moved into 10th on ETSU’s all-time scoring list with his 42-point effort, giving him 1,230 points for his career.
Childress passed Charlie Stewart (1,217 points, 1974-77), Winfred Reid (1,224, 1979-82) and Rusty Woy (1,228, 1951-54). He trails Trazel Silvers (1,257, 1991-94) by 27 points for ninth on the all-time list.
“It was an outstanding performance by Meco,” said head coach Ed DeChellis. “He made great play after great play.”
The night was also special as it was Senior Night for the ETSU players and DeChellis was pleased that the team’s two seniors, Childress and Jon Perry, who made his first career start, went out with a victory in front of the home crowd of 3,724.
“It was good for two great seniors going out winning at home,” he said. “Both are tremendous kids that work extremely hard . they’re great ambassadors for our program.”
Perry came up with a steal in his first start and collected an assist on the game’s first basket, a jumper from the baseline by Zakee Wadood.
With ETSU leading 22-14 in the first half, Childress began to heat up, showing signs of what kind of night he was going to have.
Childress scored 14 straight points, putting the Bucs up 36-23 with 6:08 to go in the first half. ETSU’s leading scorer then closed out the half, nailing a three-pointer from well beyond the three-point line to send the Bucs into the locker room with a 45-31 lead.
“We played very sluggish, we didn’t play very well overall,” DeChellis said. “They did a good job hanging in there and making us work.”
The Catamounts (11-14, 5-9) got within 10 points, 48-39, at the start of the second half on threes by Kori Hatcher and Kelvin Martin, who led Western Carolina with 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 on his three-pointers.
The Bucs built their lead back up to 17 with 9:48 to go after a free throw by Childress before the Catamounts cut it back down to 10, 70-60, after Martin’s three at the 5:32 mark.
Western got as close as within five, 74-69, after Martin’s jumper with less than three minutes to play. But a basket by Wadood and eight straight free throws from the Bucs (Ryan Lawson 2-for-2, Jerald Fields 2-for-2 and Tiras Wade 4-for-4) built ETSU’s lead back to 14, 84-70.
With the game well in hand, Childress put the exclamation point on his record-setting day with two dunks in the final 40 seconds to give him 42 points for the game and secure the 14-point victory for ETSU.
“As a whole we played OK,” Childress said. “We were kind of sluggish, but we pulled away at the end.”
DeChellis was, however, concerned with the lack of emotion by his team, who are ranked first in the SoCon and 18th in the nation in scoring (81.6 ppg).
“We didn’t play well, we didn’t execute well and we didn’t play with emotion,” he said. “There are two games left in the season and there is no reason not to play with emotion.”
Wadood (13 points), Lawson (11) and Wade (11) all reached double figures in scoring for ETSU. Wadood also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and still leads the conference (9.2 rpg).
Lawson went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, making him 63-for-67 on the season.
Wade had a complete game for the Bucs, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out eight assists to go with his 11 points.
The Bucs will be on the road for their final two regular season games, traveling to Furman today for a 7 p.m. tip-off. ETSU will then travel to Boone, N.C., on Saturday to face Appalachian State.
It will be the Bucs’ first meeting of the season with the Furman Paladins and the second vs. ASU. The Buccaneers defeated the Mountaineers, 75-66, on Jan. 2 at Memorial Center.
“We have to take it one game at a time and we can get second place (in the North Division),” Childress said.

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