ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 5, 2022) – The annual SoCon Ingles Basketball Championship tournament took place over the weekend and saw the Bucs make an early exit due to an 84-76 overtime loss to The Citadel on March 4.
ETSU battled back from a 10-point second half deficit, but The Citadel proved too strong in overtime. David Sloan led the Bucs in scoring with 17, but fouled out with 13 seconds left in regulation. ETSU ends the year 15-17.
Chattanooga will battle the winner of Furman and Samford in Monday night’s championship game.
The SoCon saw improvement across the entire conference this season.
Western Carolina finished last season at (4-13). This season saw them add one more win to their column to end the year (5-13) and last place in SoCon standings.
The Citadel also improved their previous season-best of (5-11) as the squad finished this season (6-12) and ninth place in SoCon play.
The ETSU Bucs had their share of struggles through the season, as plenty of changes occurred in the off-season, from last year’s (8-7) record, the Bucs ended this season (7-11) and eighth place in the SoCon.
Mercer did not improve their (8-9) record from last season and found themselves with an (8-10) record in seventh place.
VMI, (7-7) last season, would repeat .500 records, going (9-9) this season and sixth place in the conference.
UNCG was atop the SoCon last season and boasted a (13-5) record; however, the team finished with an even (9-9) record this season and fifth place.
Wofford was second last season in SoCon play with a record of (12-5), but the team struggled equal to UNCG and ended their regular season with a record of (10-8) and fourth in SoCon play.
Last season, Samford finished in last place with an inner-conference record of (2-9). This season was a total turnaround for the Bulldogs as they finished third with a (10-8) record.
Furman was able to improve on their (10-5) record from last season and finish with a second-best (12-6) record in SoCon play.
Chattanooga showed potential last season with a (9-7) team that looked ready to break through at any moment. The team found its footing early this season and never looked back. Now sitting on top of the SoCon with a record of (14-4), Chattanooga looks to find a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
As another basketball season comes to a close, we enter the most exciting and electric month in all of sports: March Madness! Get those brackets ready to fill out. It’s almost time.
