In front of the largest crowd in the Mini-Dome in 11 years (8,667), seniors Jerald Fields and Zakee Wadood left home with a win. ETSU (24-4, 15-0 SoCon) defeated UT-Chattanooga 84-72 to go undefeated at home.
Their 15-game winning streak is the second longest in Southern Conference history in almost ten years.
The Bucs went into the locker room at the half with a 28-24 lead after a 3-pointer by Ben Rhoda but came out with a vengeance in the second half outscoring Chattanooga (16-10, 9-6 SoCon) 56-48.
Fields hit Rhoda down under for a bucket, making the game 30-24.
James Anthony then hit his only three-point field goal of the evening, putting the Bucs up nine at 33-24.
Tim Smith led the team in scoring with 27 points, his career high. He was 11-16 from the floor and had seven assists.
“We just got it together and regrouped at halftime,” Smith said on ETSU’s quick start in the second half.
“We knew we were playing bad, but we had to just pick it up offensive-wise.”
Smith has developed his running shot and a stop and shoot. He feels his morning workouts are playing a great role in his performance.
“I’m up early every morning working on my jump shot. I’ll keep at it and hopefully, it will keep coming to me,” he said
Wadood and Fields, honored at the start of the game, left a heavy imprint up their last game.
Fields netted 20 points and seven rebounds and Wadood got his 26th career double-double, scoring 10 and having ten rebounds.
Smith hit Wadood for an earth-shaking ally oop with under eight minutes left in the game, pushing ETSU ahead 62-45.
Wadood said it was going to almost impossible for Chattanooga to win Tuesday.
“There was no way Chattanooga was going to beat us today,” said Wadood. “They had no chance.”
ETSU improved their field goal percentage from 40 percent in the first half to 64 in the second.
Rhoda, who has quietly dominated on and off the bench, dumped in 19 and was 9-10 in field goals.
“It was a great win for us,” said Murry Bartow. “They (Chattanooga) have won their last four games on the road and six of their last eight. We were hoping to hold them under 80 and we held them to 72 points. I’m for Jerald and Zakee to go out with a win them have meant a lot to this program.”
But UTC was not done. They hit ten three-pointers for the game, keeping them within striking distance of the Bucs.
ETSU kept up their spurtability and Rhoda ended the game by scoring on a steal dealt from Anthony.
“I’m kind of sad that I’m leaving, but it was a good win for us tonight,” said Fields. He said that he thought the turning point was when he and Wadood got going in the second half.
“In the first half we struggled but in the second half we put up some numbers and started playing better defense.”
UTC coach Jeff Lebo said that he accredited ETSU’s good play to depth that no team could match in the Southern Conference.
“They have great point guard play, great inside game,” said Lebo. “On the road we like the pace a little slower like it was in the first half. We just turned the ball over too much in the first half.”
Lebo attributed ETSU’s success to the play of Rhoda.
“The key again is Rhoda,” he said.
“He’s good. He doesn’t get the credit that he deserves. I think he’s the glue on this team that makes the big shots when they need them. He hit a big three before halftime and does stuff to get the team going.”
ETSU heads to the College of Charleston Saturday to play their last game of the season at 2 p.m.
The game will be televised on ESPN2.

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