It was a career night for roommates Micah Williams and Mike Smith. The duo accounted for 49 of the Bucs’ 93 points in a victory over the Kennesaw State Owls 93-62 on Saturday afternoon inside the MSHA/ETSU Athletic Complex.
Williams, a senior from Manchester, Tenn., became the 33rd Buccaneer in school history to score over 1,000 points in his career.
“I’m really proud of Micah Williams getting to 1,000 points,” said head coach Murry Bartow, whose team improves to 15-8, 10-2 in the Atlantic Sun. “He’s really become a heck of a player, but he’s a better person then he is a player.”
Williams entered the game only needing 14 points to get to 1,000 for his career, and he would get 13 of those points in the first half. The basket that would send him over the milestone came with 17:55 left in the second half on a three-point basket.
“I really wasn’t thinking about it,” said Williams, who finished with 22 points on the night. “I knew that going into the half that I was one point away, but once the game got going you kind of just put that into the back of your mind.”
Fellow senior and roommate Mike Smith also had a career night, as he scored a career-high 27 points. Smith had 19 of those points in the first half.
The Bucs got off to a fast start, jumping to a 19-12 lead. Then the Bucs would go on a 11-0 run and take their lead to 30-12 with 8:35 left in the first half.
They would expand on that lead even more, and by halftime the Bucs entered the locker room up 55-29.
“Coach was telling us that we needed to come out and throw the first punch,” Smith said. “So we came out and were aggressive and got the easy buckets.”
ETSU would start off the second half much like the first. They would go on multiple double-digit runs, including a 12-3 run that gave them a 71-39 lead with a little over 12 minutes left.
The Bucs would also clam their largest lead of the game, going up by 42 points with 3:23 left in the game. But Kennesaw State would close out the game on a 11-0 run.
The Buc’s had two other starters score in double-digits with juniors Adam Sollazzo and Isiah Brown finishing with 15 points and 17 points, respectively. Brown would also bring down 12 rebounds to finish the game with a double-double.
ETSU returns to action on Monday night, as they host the Mercer Bears.
The Bucs escaped the last matchup against the Bears at Mercer, 62-61. Adam Sollazzo hit the game-winning lay-up with 3.7 seconds left in the game.
“I don’t think we will have to say much to motivate our guys for Mercer,” Bartow said.
Mercer was 2-1 against the Bucs last year, but the Bucs won the most important game which was the A-Sun tournament championship on Mercer’s home floor.
Mercer will be without the services of leading scorer Jeff Smith. He hurt his knee in a Jan. 20 game against Jacksonville and will likely be unable to play for the rest of the season. He averaged 14. 7 ppg, and also led the team in assists. Tip is set for 7 p.m.
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