ETSU trailed by as many as 17 but mounted a second-half comeback, beating No. 5 seed Western Carolina 69-67 in a SoCon semi-final thriller Sunday in Asheville, North Carolina.
Blake Barkley scored and was fouled with 38 seconds to play. He hit the free throw to give ETSU the lead 68-67, and the Bucs didn’t trail again. Barkley added eight rebounds to go with his 19 points.
Brian Taylor II, Jaylen Smith, Barkley and Jordan McCullum all scored in double digits for the Bucs, with Taylor having a team high 22 points.
With the Bucs up 69-67, Western Carolina missed two desperation three-pointers at the end.
The Monday, March 9, SoCon final will be broadcast on ESPN at 7 p.m.
The Southern Conference men’s basketball tournament kicked off on Friday, March 6. ETSU played their first game on Saturday, March 7, defeating The Citadel 83-76.
The first half of the game started out strong with the Buccaneers scoring eight before The Citadel could score one, pushing ETSU into a strong lead. The Citadel quickly caught up though, passing ETSU with only two minutes left in the first half. However, the Buccaneers stayed strong, finishing out the half with a score of 32-36, barely gaining the lead.
The second half heated up quickly with the teams going back and forth on scoring. The Buccaneers found their stride, and the score was suddenly 38-52, ETSU in a whopping 14-point lead. The Citadel tried to catch up, but they were too far behind to tie up the score. The clock hit 0:00, and ETSU men’s basketball won their first game of the SoCon tournament with a final score of 76-83.
For more information on the ETSU men’s basketball team, you can go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the basketball tab.
