Belmont Blasts the Bucs
On Thursday night, the ETSU Bucs looked to stop the Belmont winning streak inside the Memorial Center. However, the Bruins of Belmont raced out to a 20 point halftime lead, and never looked back as they cruised to their ninth consecutive victory in Johnson City. Shane Dansby had 28 points, and two other Bruins scored in double figures in the 87-75 victory.
“You can’t spot them 20 points and expect to come back and win,” ETSU coach Murray Bartow said. “It’s a tough loss. Obviously, there were several keys in the game, but our inability to make shots was huge. That really killed us in the first half. I thought the effort was great in the second half, but we were just too far behind.”
The Bruins jumped out to a 17-4 lead as they couldn’t miss, and the Bucs could not buy a bucket. ETSU would close the gap to 10 before the Bruins would go on another offensive run to take a 47-27 lead at the half.
The second half was much of the same as Belmont continues their impressive offensive performance. The Bucs would cut the lead to 11 on a Courtney Pigram 3-pointer, but Belmont would counter with a four 3-pointers, and make it a 21 point game..
ETSU was led by Courtney Pigram’s 16 points, and Kevin Tiggs added 14 points. Mike Smith and Travis Strong both added 13 points. The Bucs shot 39% from the floor, and just 28% from behind the 3-point line. Belmont shot 53% from the floor, and an impressive 41% from behind the arc.
“Belmont’s a really good team and they are well coached,” Bartow said. “We just haven’t had much success against them.
The Bruins victory was the third straight victory during the regular season in the Memorial Center. The other victories came in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament where they have captured two straight A-Sun titles.
Despite the loss, Coach Bartow knows that his Bucs still have something to play for.
“It’s disappointing because our hopes for a regular season championship are over, but we still have a lot to play for,” Bartow said. “We can still win 20 games and the truth is any team in our league needs three wins in our tournament to make the NCAA Tournament.”
Buccaneers Survive Scare Against Lipscomb
On Saturday, the East Tennessee State Bucs looked to snap a two game losing streak in the A-Sun against a strong Lipscomb team. The Bucs nearly squandered a 15 point first half lead, but hung on for the 81-78 victory.
“I thought it was a good bounce back win,” ETSU head coach Murry Bartow said. “We had a lot of energy in practice yesterday, and I was really glad to see our guys come out like that. They (Lipscomb) made a great run at us in the middle of the game. They are a hard nosed team, and they’re hard to play, so this was a good win for us. It wasn’t always pretty for us at the end, but we made our free throws.”
The Bucs, who saw their regular season conference title hopes dashed on Thursday, rebounded quickly against the Bison. ETSU led by as many as 15 in the early parts of the first half. Neither team could buy a basket as both shot in the 20 percent range. The bison would close the lead to six before the half.
The Bison’s second half performance was much better then the first, and it nearly cost the Bucs the game. Lipscomb opened the half on a 14-4 run that saw them take a 45-41 lead. However, the Bucs could not be denied as the lead was swapped 12 times. The Bucs were forced to the foul line in the last two minutes to seal the victory. The Bison did have a shot to tie the game to force overtime, but could not get a shot off.
The Bucs were led by Kenyona Swader finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Andrew Reed had 23 points and nine rebounds. Micah Williams finshied with six rebounds and 14 points while only playing in 17 minutes. The Bucs shot 48 percent from the floor, but were out-rebounded 48-42.
