Rick Scruggs, head coach of Gardner-Webb University got the homecoming he was hoping for in the first game of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament.
Scruggs coached in the Tri-Cities over 10 years ago at Milligan College. Garner-Webb’s head basketball coach led his team to victory over the host team, the ETSU Buccaneers.
Ben Rhoda was back and it showed early in the basketball Bucs first ever Atlantic Sun tournament appearance.
After Travis Strong’s first and only points after a huge block by Andrew Reed, Ben Rhoda hit a monumental three pointer to start Thursday’s first round slug-fest.
Gardner-Webb’s Tim Jennings kept his team in the hunt early with a couple of huge three pointers.
However the Atlantic Sun’s player of the year would not be up staged as ETSU’s Tim Smith used an arsenal of skill moves to dazzle the crowd.
He got a rise out of Brad Nuckles with a behind-the-back pass.
Nuckles caught the ball with a full head of steam and slammed the rock with authority.
Dillion Sneed would give the Buccaneers added energy with his play on the boards. He fought hard for points in the post – off of offensive rebounds.
Everything was looking good for the hometown team when the halftime buzzer sounded. The Bucs lead the Bulldogs at that point 34 to 26.
Smith took over in the beginning of the second half and the Bucs had the Bulldogs on a short leash. With a few Smith drives to the basket ETSU had a comfortable lead 55-44 with just over seven minutes to play.
The Bucs would only score five points in the next five minutes and was down by one point with two minutes left to play in the game.
Rhoda and Nuckles would score the only Buc points for the rest of the game. They each scored two points in the last minute to give ETSU a chance with a 63-62 lead with four seconds to play in the battle.
ETSU lost the ball on an inbounds play and Gardner-Webb had one last hope to win the affair with two seconds left on the scoreboard.
Jennings sealed the deal with less than a second on the clock.
He caught the inbound pass turned and swished a shot from the baseline to win the game for the Bulldogs.
The Buccaneer faithful were silent as the final buzzer sounded and Gardner-Webb had one more point on the board than did the Bucs, 63-62.

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