UNC-Wilmington had a pressing question presented to them Saturday. How do you beat the ETSU Bucs?
After the Bucs’ comeback victory, the answer to the posed question has to be “with a very big stick.”
ETSU beat UNC-W in a wire-to-wire game 67-62 in their second home game of the season.
The Bucs (3-1) shut the door on the Seahawks (2-1) in the last three minutes of the game with a James Anthony three-pointer.
Anthony put the Bucs up 61-60, but a pair of free throws by the Seahawks’ Ed Spencer put UNC-Wilmingon back on top 62-61 with 2:35 left.
Zakee Wadood hit two free throws then to bring the Bucs back 63-62. With the crowd on their feet and 48 seconds left, Wadood hit Ben Rhoda for a two-point field goal to keep the Seahawks at bay, 65-62.
“We had a big second half,” said ETSU coach Murry Bartow. “The difference in the game was the pressure defense we put on them in the second half.”
Pressure defense was the difference for the Buccaneers as they were down 30-21 at the half.
In the second half, ETSU outscored UNC-W 46-32 and most of that was because of tough defensive play.
ETSU forced the Seahawks to turnover the ball 26 times, and 14 of those turnovers came in the second half.
“I have to give ETSU a lot of credit,” said UNC-W coach Brad Brownell.
“They forced us to turnover the ball 26 times with pressure defense.”
Brownell said he believed the difference was that ETSU was a lot like his team.
“ETSU does not care who they play or by how many points they are down,” he said.
Jerald Fields fouled out of the game with 8:51 left in the second half. Fields had six points, seven rebounds and one assist on the night.
The leading scorer Saturday with 19 points, Wadood, said he was impressed how his team could win even without one of their best players.
“This shows us if one the starters fouls out, others will come behind and pick up the slack,” Wadood said.
“We got some turnovers in the second half that put us back in the game. James Anthony came through for us with his three pointers late in the game,” he said.
Anthony was 3-5 from three-point range. He had 10 points, including nine from three-pointers in the second half.
“There was a lot of hype that went into this game since both teams played in the NCAA tournament last year,” Anthony said.
He also spoke of the referees’ willingness to call many fouls Saturday. At one point, it appeared that ETSU might fall far behind from so many fouls called on them.
“They were not really letting us play ball,” Anthony said. The Bucs had 22 total fouls called on them.
Rhoda continues to shine for the Bucs, as he dumped in 18 points and was 7-10 from the field.
Rhoda, a sophomore, is now first on the team in scoring.
ETSU hits the road to play at UNC-Asheville on Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.
They then return home to play their conference opener against Georgia Southern on Saturday at 2 p.m.

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