Stetson stuns ETSU in Atlantic Sun Conference game

BY MAX HRENDA
Sports Correspondent

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Five days after suffering its first conference loss of the season, the ETSU men’s basketball team had a chance to throw itself back in the thick of the Atlantic Sun title race when the Bucs hosted Stetson on Thursday night.

That chance was dashed in the second half, however, as Buccaneer shooting woes combined with Stetson 3-point sharpshooting to give the Hatters a 54-52 win at ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center in Johnson City.

“We just didn’t play very well,” said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow. “We struggled on offense. We didn’t defend very well. We just have to play better.”

The Bucs’ 52 points matched their season-low from the 74-52 loss at Alabama-Birmingham on Dec. 4. Despite coming near their season-average 42 percent from the field (they shot 38 percent against Stetson), the Buccaneers hit a new low by shooting 14 percent from 3-point range.

“I thought we got some pretty good looks, we just didn’t make them,” Bartow said. “We kind of live and die by that perimeter jump shot. If you’re missing them, you don’t look like a very good team.”

While ETSU’s offense struggled, Stetson’s flourished. After being held to just 27 percent from the field in the first half, the Hatters found their range from beyond the arc, going 7-of-12 from 3-point range.
Stetson also managed to score late into the shot clock, thereby limiting ETSU’s usual fast-paced style of play.

“They stopped our momentum,” said ETSU junior guard Justin Tubbs. “We do like to push the ball and keep the game upbeat, but they were slowing us down. It hurt us.”

ETSU’s offensive struggles eventually yielded defensive ones as well. Due to all the missed shots, the Bucs were unable to establish their patented full court press defense.

“We missed a lot of shots around the rim, especially myself,” said junior forward Tommy Hubbard. “They should’ve been made shots to lead us to the press.”

Hubbard led the Buccaneers defensively with game-highs in steals (four) and rebounds (eight). Offensively, junior forward Micah Williams notched a game-high 13 points while Tubbs added 12.
For Stetson, senior guards Brandon Williams and Mark Lohuis led the way with 12 points each, while senior guard A.J. Smith and redshirt freshman Ridge Graham each added 10.

At the outset of the game, everything seemed to be going the Bucs’ way. Freshman guard Sheldon Cooley was able to nab a quick steal after the Hatters won the tip and found fellow freshman Lukas Poderis for an open jumper.

A minute later, however, Lohuis hit the first of his four 3-pointers to give the Hatters a 3-2 lead. A Tubbs 3-pointer knotted the contest at 5-5 with 17:27 left in the half, and from there the teams traded baskets until the score was still tied at 13 with 9:57 to go. For the rest of the way, eight points from Cooley and Tubbs powered a 14-6 run to give ETSU a 27-19 lead at halftime.

“I saw some good things in the first half,” Bartow said. “I thought we could’ve made it a 14 or 15-point lead at halftime, and that might’ve changed the game.”

After halftime, Tubbs hit another quick 3 to push the advantage to 30-19. From there, Stetson scored 10 unanswered points in the next three minutes to cut the deficit to 30-29 with 16:24 left to play. After a pair of Buccaneer free throws, Brandon Williams’ second 3 of the game tied the score again at 32. From that point, neither team took an advantage larger than three points, until a Smith layup with 3:05 left pushed the Hatters’ advantage to 52-48. After an ETSU basket, Smith made his way to the free-throw line to maintain Stetson’s four-point lead.

After Micah Williams hit a layup to put the score at 54-52, the Bucs quickly fouled Smith, who missed the resulting free throw. Hubbard grabbed the rebound, sprinted down the court and worked inside for a layup attempt that would have tied the game and forced overtime. The ball bounced off the rim, however, and the Buccaneers went on to lose their first home conference game of the season.

“There’s a lot of season left,” Bartow said. “This is no time to panic. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about some of the things I saw out there tonight.”

Stetson (4-11, 2-5 A-Sun) now finds itself in the eighth spot in the Atlantic Sun standings. They will look to improve on this record when they visit the Campbell Fighting Camels in Buies Creek, N.C., on Saturday at 3:15 p.m.

ETSU (8-9, 4-2) hopes to even their record and maintain their place in the Atlantic Sun’s top five teams when it hosts Florida Gulf Coast at 4 p.m. on Saturday.