Bucs have fun in rout over Catamounts, 87-69

Published 12:16 am Tuesday, January 11, 2022

JOHNSON CITY – From high-flying dunks, to balanced scoring, to stingy defense, the ETSU men’s basketball team had some fun, as the Buccaneers enjoyed an 87-69 rout over Western Carolina on Monday night inside Freedom Hall.

For the 14th straight time, ETSU defeated Western Carolina as the Bucs improved to 10-7 overall and 2-2 in SoCon play. The Bucs have won 31 of the last 32 against the Catamounts, 16 consecutive at home and lead the all-time series, 62-25.

ETSU shot a season-high 57.6 percent from the field, while tying a season high with 34 made field goals and dished out its second-most assists on the year with 22. The Blue and Gold netted eight threes and converted on 11 of their 15 trips to the foul line.

After only scoring 14 points in the paint in Saturday’s loss to Wofford, the Bucs were plus-20 tonight – outscoring Western Carolina, 48-28 – while also registering 26 fast-break points.

The Buccaneer defense held Western Carolina to 29 percent shooting (21-72) and 17 percent from long distance (7-41). The Catamounts did go 20-of-26 at the line, but Davion Everett came off the bench late and missed back-to-back free throws with 42 seconds remaining, sending the Buccaneer faithful into a frenzy as they won free Chick-fil-A for the second time this season.

All nine ETSU players who logged minutes reached the scoring and rebounding column in the 18-point conference win.

ETSU made its first shot of the night – a three-pointer by Ledarrius Brewer (Meridian, Miss.) – making it 1,077 straight games with a triple.

With the setback, Western Carolina moved to 7-9, 1-2.

Jordan King (Albany, N.Y.) bounced back from an off-shooting night on Saturday by scoring a career-high 23 points. King was 9-of-13 from the field (5-9 from beyond the arc). The Buccaneer guard also grabbed three rebounds, dished out two assists and did not record a turnover in 29 minutes of action.

David Sloan (Louisville, Ky.) continued his stellar stretch of games as he recorded his first double-double after finishing with 12 points, a career-high 10 assists and five rebounds. The 10 assists were the most by a Buccaneer since Tray Boyd III had 11 against Mercer on Feb. 16, 2019.

Ty Brewer (Meridian, Miss.), Jaden Seymour (Charlotte, N.C.) and Mohab Yasser (Giza, Egypt) also scored in double figures. Brewer tallied 14 points, eight rebounds and two assists, while Yasser accounted for 11 of ETSU’s 21 bench points. Seymour registered his third double-digit scoring game of the season by adding 10 points (3-of-3 shooting) and six rebounds.

Western Carolina was led by Vonterius Woolbright’s 20-point effort.

Ledarrius Brewer scored the first points of the night on the three-pointer and ETSU never trailed.

The Bucs took control with a 15-3 run, which ended with nine straight scores, to see their lead soar to 15, thanks to King’s second made three making it 24-9 with just under nine minutes left in the first half.

The lead never dipped below double figures the rest of the night – and after Western Carolina pulled within 10 at the 4:31 mark – ETSU scored 11 of the final 15 points of the opening stanza to take a 42-25 lead into the break.

The Bucs posted three dunks in the first half, including Sloan and Yasser assisting on alley-oops to Seymour to ignite the closing run.

ETSU assisted on nine of its 16 makes in the first half, while shooting 53 percent from the field and outrebounding Western Carolina, 25-17. The Bucs cashed eight offensive rebounds into 11 second chance points in the opening 20 minutes, along with scoring 24 points in the paint. The Blue and Gold were well-balanced on offense with five different players scoring at least five points in the frame.

Like they did to start the night, ETSU scored the first bucket of the second half to go up 19, while the lead went over the 20-point threshold a minute and a half in as Sloan found Ty Brewer for a lay-up in transition, moving the score to 48-27.

King then took over as he enjoyed a stretch where he scored 13 ETSU’s 20 points, capped by a dunk then a step-back three, giving the Bucs their largest lead of the night, 73-44 with 9:39 remaining.

ETSU’s lead hit 29 on one more possession, courtesy of a Yasser lay-up, while the Bucs showcased three more dunks in the final eight and half minutes – two by Ty Brewer – and one from Matt Nunez (Newport News, Va.), bringing the bench in celebration mode.

In total, the Bucs totaled seven dunks on the night.

ETSU now hits the road for two straight beginning Wednesday night at Furman. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Timmons Arena.

For more information on ETSU men’s basketball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s basketball tab.