Junior guard Micah Williams (Manchester) matched his career high with 22 points and junior forward Tommy Hubbard (Boston) posted his 12th double-double of the year with 14 points and 10 rebounds, as the ETSU men’s basketball completed a perfect road trip with its second straight win, defeating Stetson 75-60 in Atlantic Sun Conference action Saturday evening at the Edmunds Center.With the win, the Bucs improve to 13-12 overall, 9-5 in A-Sun play, and stay just one game back of league-leading Jacksonville in the regular season standings. Meanwhile, the Hatters drop to 5-18, 3-12.

“When you look at the numbers there really isn’t much to complain about,” said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow. “We hold them to a low shooting percentage on their home floor, we shoot it well ourselves, we did a great job on the boards, and we got to the foul line a lot. Micah and Tommy were really good for us, and it was good to see Micah being productive again.

The Bucs shot a strong 56.3 percent from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc, holding Stetson to just 35 percent from the field. ETSU also outrebounded the Hatters 38-24 and outscored Stetson 30-22 in the paint. Along with Williams’ and Hubbard’s efforts, the Bucs also got 14 points and seven boards from sophomore forward Isiah Brown (Miami), while sophomore guard Adam Sollazzo (Tampa) added a 10-point, five-assist effort to the cause.

The game stood tied 6-6 early in the first half, but the Bucs went on a 9-0 run as Williams scored six of his 14 first-half points to make it 15-6 at the 14:33 mark. The Hatters then cut the lead to five at 17-12, but the Bucs responded by going to work on their largest lead of the half at 31-20 with 5:37 left before the intermission. However, Stetson was not done and answered over the next three minutes by going on a 12-3 run of its own to make it 34-32 with 2:39 left. Bartow called a 30-second timeout at that point to stop the momentum, and it worked as the Bucs scored the final seven points of the half to make it 41-32 at the break.

The Bucs shot a sizzling 64 percent from the floor and 60 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, while holding Stetson to just 37 percent from the field. However, Stetson shot 90 percent from the charity stripe and hit seven more free throws than the Bucs to stay close at the break.

In the second half, the Bucs got the lead back to 11 early on, but Stetson responded with a quick 5-0 spurt to make it 43-37 with 16:24 left in the game. The Hatters later got the deficit to just three at 48-45, but the Bucs pulled away late with a 15-7 run to make it 63-52 on a layup by Brown with 3:31 left in the game. From there, the Bucs only extended the lead at the foul line

The Bucs return home for a pair of games next week, facing Kennesaw State on Friday at 7 p.m. inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center.

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