The ETSU men’s basketball team traveled to Nashville yesterday to face Atlantic Sun leader Belmont tonight and Lipscomb on Saturday afternoon. The Bucs enter the contest with a two-game cushion on Jacksonville for second place in the A-Sun. Even though this game isn’t exactly the battle for first place that it could have been almost two weeks ago, due to ETSU’s surprising loss to conference bottom-feeder Stetson 55-54, the Bucs still go into this game with the same intensity.

“I think it’s very much still a battle for first,” head coach Murry Bartow said. “If we can win our last three games we still mathematically have got a good shot to win it. So it’s very much a game for first.”

The Bucs and the Belmont Bruins have met once before this year, with the Bruins winning the contest 72-62. It was a lopsided affair with only one lead change in the game, it came when Belmont took the lead 5-3 with 15 minutes left in the first half.

However, the Bucs were without the services of senior guard Justin Tubbs, who was out with an ankle injury he suffered in the game against Lipscomb.

The last time the Bruins met ETSU, they had not lost a game in the conference. Now there seems to be a chink in the armor, as the Bruins enter the contest with a loss at Lipscomb. That is their only Atlantic Sun loss, while the Bucs have three.

The Bruins are entering the game after receiving their highest ranking, sixth, in the CollegeInsider.com poll that ranks the top Mid-Major programs in the nation. They also received five votes for the AP Top 25 poll for this week.

The Bucs are led by senior Mike Smith, who received his fourth Atlantic Sun Player of the Week Award Tuesday. Smith said the last time the two teams met the Bucs were drained from the TV game they played two days before, and the team is eager for redemption.

“It’s going to be tough, they are first in the league,” he said. “They have a great team, great coach. We have to be ready to play.”

Bartow is excited for the game, “I like our team right now, and I like the look in our eyes,” he said.

“Like I always tell them, ‘It’s a big game because it is the next game.

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