Jerald Fields has eclipsed his season-high scoring in each of East Tennessee State’s last two games, and on Monday he went a step further.
The 6-7, 270-pound junior forward tore through the Catamounts’ interior defense to net another season-high and a new career-high for scoring, collecting 30 points as the Buccaneers stayed in the hunt for the Southern Conference North Division championship with an 89-71 victory over Western Carolina at Memorial Center.
“I felt good at the start of the game and just took it from there,” Fields said, whose 30 points came from a 12-of-18 effort from the field and a 6-of-7 clip at the free throw line. “I haven’t had a game like that since AAU ball or high school. It feels good to play like this, but I couldn’t have done it without help from my teammates.”
The Bucs (13-9 overall, 7-4 SoCon) got an extra dose of scoring thanks to a 21-point effort from freshman guard Tim Smith, as well 14 points from freshman guard Ben Rhoda and 11 points courtesy of sophomore guard James Anthony.
The 20-point effort for Smith was his second in as many games. He had 25 points last weekend against Georgia Southern.
Early on, Western Carolina (7-15, 4-7) kept it close thanks to the play of sophomore forward Kevin Martin and guard Emre Atsur. Martin became the 33rd player in Western Carolina history to reach 1,000 career points during the game, finishing with a team-high 21 points. Mean-while, Atsur netted a career-high 20 points as the Catamounts trailed 44-36 at halftime and actually cut ETSU’s lead to just three points at 50-47 with 16:53 left in the second half.
However, over the next three minutes, the Bucs went on a 10-0 run to make it 60-47 with 13:43 left in the game. The Catamounts could not make a significant run of their own the rest of the way and the Bucs were able to comfortably build their winning margin of 18 points.
Other players that put together solid outings included ETSU’s Zakee Wadood and Western Carolina’s Kori Hatcher. Wadood finished with nine points, eight rebounds, five assists, three blocks and three steals, while Hatcher was the only other Western Carolina player to reach double figures with 11 points.
The Bucs must now turn their attention to second-place David-son, a team they trail by one game in the North Division standings.
Fields said the Bucs certainly need a win when the two teams meet Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Belk Arena.

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