Chattanooga – Tim Smith sent a message to the Southern Conference. Never ever count the Bucs out.
Smith scored 37 points and led the Bucs to an 87-84 upset of No. 4 seed Furman at UT-Chattanooga’s McKenzie Arena on Wednesday in the first round of the SoCon Men’s Basketball Championship.
“As long as players play to their ability, it doesn’t matter what I do,” said Smith, who has scored under only 20 points in postseason game. “We know what we have to do to win because we lost a lot of games we should have won early this year.”
In nine postseason games, seven SoCon and two NCAA Tournaments, Smith has averaged 25.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
Smith sent a message early, hitting a 3-point field goal that gave ETSU (10-18) a five point lead.
A 12-0 run put ETSU ahead 17-10 and the Bucs wouldn’t look back taking a 32-29 lead in at the half.
Besides Smith’s 21 first-half points, an active zone defense bottled loose ends, not allowing Furman (16-13) to rely on the three-pointer.
The Paladins had a message to send of their own. Don’t count them out either.
Fighting their way back from a 12-point deficit the Paladins took the lead for the first time in the game with 3:48 remaining in the game on a Ben Earle 3-pointer.
Smith, stamped a return to sender with a 3 to bring back the valued lead 79-77 with 3:14 left in regulation.
Furman was down three at 84-81, but Ben Rhoda intercepted a pass and tossed the ball to Smith, who was fouled and made two free throws that secured the win.
“I was just trying to read the guy’s eyes,” Rhoda said of his clutch defensive play. “He threw a skip pass over the top, and I just jumped up and got it.”
Rhoda finished with 17 points and Andrew Reed scored 10 and led both teams with 10 rebounds as the Bucs won just their fifth league game all year. They finished the regular season 4-12 in SoCon play.
Reed has been taking up the slack for the injured Brad Nuckles. He has high hopes as the Bucs take on Chattanooga tonight at 6 p.m.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us to play Chattanooga for the third time,” Reed said. “We just want to play the best we can tomorrow.”
ETSU will be facing Chattanooga for third time this season. The Bucs dropped both regular season games to the Mocs, the first a 93-59 loss in McKenzie Arena.

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