The smallest man on the court made the biggest impact as ETSU (12-4, 4-0 SoCon) downed Western Carolina (8-7, 2-3 SoCon) 95-82, Saturday at the Memorial Center.
Sophomore point guard Tim Smith led the Bucs with 26 points in a game that saw three ETSU players foul out.
Zakee Wadood, ETSU’s leading scorer, fouled out with 10 minutes left in the game. He was then joined by James Anthony and Aaron Scott.
Fouling was the biggest story in ETSU’s win as they held a 29-point lead at one time.
Western Carolina’s Kevin Martin scored 37 points and hit 21 of 23 free throws, a WCU school record.
“This was a good win for us,” said Head Coach Murry Bartow.
“We were very concerned coming in. In the first half, we did a lot of good things. But we fouled too much in the second half.”
In a game that lasted almost three hours, both teams shot a total of 84 shots from the charity stripe, and both coaches had a technical foul.
“There were a lot of cheap fouls out there tonight,” said Tim Smith. “It was hard to get a rhythm going out there because of so many fouls called.”
Kevin Martin, the NCAA’s leading scorer, was shut down in the first half, having only 8 points. That was mostly because of 17 WCU turnovers and seven Buccaneer steals.
Gerald Fields and Ben Rhoda kept the Bucs close after foul-outs by three Buc players. They combined for 35 points and 11 rebounds.
Fields was happy just to have stayed in the game with four fouls.
“Kevin Martin kept us in foul trouble,” he said. “He told me that he was going to foul me out next. I was determined to stay in the game and I did.”
ETSU is now 4-0 in the Southern Conference and 6-0 at home. In the next five days, the Bucs will play three SoCon games.
Lauren Trantham came up big for the Lady Bucs Saturday, as she blocked what would have been the game winning shot and brought home another ETSU win, 65-64, over Appalachian State.
The Lady Bucs are bringing it home game after game these days.
They have won seven straight games at home, including a 6-0 start to the season.
“We knew this was going to be a tough game for us,” said ETSU head coach Karen Kemp.
“We were fortunate to pull it out at the end.”
ETSU (7-8, 7-3 SoCon) was led in the last minutes by sophomore point guard B.J. Banjo as she sank a couple of free throws with 16 seconds left.
Banjo helped the Bucs continue their excellence from the free-throw line. As a team, they shot at 88.2 percent.
“This was the first time all season we hit key free throws,” Kemp said. “That was the difference today.”
The Lady Bucs are second in the Southern Conference behind undefeated Chattanooga.
Part of the reason for the Lady Bucs’ success is the play of senior Kiya Verdell.
Verdell led the Bucs with 19 points and rang up six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Lauren Trantham put up 13 points and 12 rebounds. This was Trantham’s third double-double of the season.
Next Saturday, the Lady Bucs will face Wofford at Spartansburg at 1 p.m.

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