The ETSU men’s basketball team won their second and final exhibition game on Monday night, beating the Tusculum Pioneers 78-41 inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center.Head coach Murry Bartow was happy with his team’s performance.

“There was a lot of good, but obviously we didn’t get off to a good start,” he said.

The Bucs fell behind early at 7-2 in the first four minutes of the game, but were able to catch up. Sophomore Sheldon Cooley hit a two-pointer at the 15:30 mark, which sparked a 15-0 ETSU run.

That run included eight points from junior forward Isiah Brown, who led the Bucs with a double-double. He finished the game with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

“After I made a couple of shots, we started to run plays were I would get the touch at the end,” Brown said. “I would see what the defense was giving us, and go from there.”

The Bucs would go into halftime with a 36-21 lead, but had 14 fouls in the first half and finished with 28 fouls.

“We fouled way too much,” Bartow said. “In the games coming up, if we foul as much as we did tonight the game is over.”

ETSU was led in the second half by senior guard Justin Tubbs, who finished with 15 points in 20 minutes.

Tubbs would foul out with 8:27 left in the second half, but by then his team had a comfortable lead of 67-35.

Senior forward Micah Williams was the only other Buccaneer to score in double digits, finishing with 10. They were able to spread the scoring around, with junior Adam Sollazzo and sophomore Sheldon Cooley each finishing with nine points.

Senior forward Mike Smith got off to a slow start, but was able to finish the game with eight points.

The Bucs were able to hold Tusculum to just 12 field goals the entire game. Four of those were scored by former Science Hill player Dionte Grey, who finished with 14 points.

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