GREENVILLE, S.C. (Jan. 12, 2024) – The ETSU men's basketball team begins a Southern Conference South Carolina road swing on Saturday when the Buccaneers take on reigning conference champion Furman. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. inside Timmons Arena. 
 
GAME INFO
DATE: Saturday, Jan. 13
TIME: 2 p.m. 
LOCATION: Greenville, S.C. (Timmons Arena)  
TEAMS: ETSU (9-7, 1-2) at Furman (7-9, 1-2) 
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: FurmanPaladins.com
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 | 104.9 NASH ICON (Jay Sandos)
TWITTER: @ETSU_MBB
 
ABOUT THE BUCS

• ETSU looks to snap a two-game skid as the Bucs sit 9-7 overall and 1-2 in league play 
• The Bucs are coming off an 80-66 setback to league-leading Western Carolina on Wednesday night 
• ETSU leads the SoCon in three-point field goal percentage defense (.306) and blocked shots (4.3), while ranking third in steals (7.6) and scoring defense (68.7)
• Since the start of the 2015-16 campaign, ETSU has won 95 SoCon games, marking the third-most during this span … UNCG and Furman both have won 104 games, Wofford has 90 and Chattanooga is at 77 
• Saturday marks ETSU's ninth true road game this season, which would tie them with Western Carolina for the most road games played to this point among SoCon teams … Jaden Seymour has been ETSU's top player on the road as he's averaging 16 points and 6.8 rebounds, while shooting 53 percent from the floor (43-81) and 47 percent from beyond the arc (15-32)
• With Karon Boyd missing Wednesday's game, ETSU used its third different starting lineup against the Catamounts … Gabe Sisk made his first collegiate start in replace of Boyd – the Bucs' leading rebounder 
• Since Feb. 16, 1987 in a game against Davidson, the Bucs have made at least one 3-pointer in 1,140 consecutive games ... ETSU was 0-for-8 in that 1987 game ... With Western Kentucky going 0-for-21 from beyond the arc on Nov. 9 at Wichita State, the Bucs now have the third-longest streak in the country behind Duke and UNLV … UNLV tops the list with 1,207 games
• The 2023-24 Buccaneer roster features 15 players ... ETSU's roster consists of one graduate player, two redshirt juniors, four juniors, one redshirt sophomore, three sophomores and four freshmen … Three players hail from North Carolina and Indiana, and one each from Tennessee, Iowa, West Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland
• The Bucs return four players from last year's roster who logged minutes, including starters Jaden Seymour and Allen Strothers, along with Justice Smith and Braden Ilic … Overall, ETSU only returns 29 percent of its scoring, 37 percent of its rebounding and 38 percent of its minutes played in 2022-23 … Seymour totaled 253 points, 218 rebounds and 1,793 minutes, Smith posted 237 points, 111 rebounds and 683 minutes, while Allen Strothers recorded 109 points, 51 rebounds and 776 minutes and Braden Ilic added for 46 points, 33 rebounds and 199 minutes
• After losing three starters and eight players from last year's team, head coach Brooks Savage and his staff brought in 11 new guys for the 2023-24 season … Seven of the Bucs are transfers – Ebby Asamoah (Delaware), Karon Boyd (USC Aiken), DJ Hughes (Butler), Jadyn Parker (North Florida), Quimari Peterson (John A. Logan), Tyler Rice (William & Mary) and Timmy Fasehun (Gulf Coast State College) … Four Bucs are true freshmen – Maki Johnson (Huntington Prep), Gabe Sisk (Ballard HS), Jaxson Jones (The Skill Factory) and David Meriwether (Lawrence North HS)

ABOUT FURMAN

• Furman, the reigning SoCon regular season and tournament champions, enter Saturday with an overall record of 7-9 and a 1-2 mark in conference play 
• The Paladins picked up their first conference win on Wednesday night when Furman defeated The Citadel 82-68
• Furman opened league play with back-to-back road losses at UNCG and Chattanooga 
• Furman's top three scorers Marcus Foster (19.8 ppg), JP Pegues (17.5) and Alex Williams (15.6) have all missed some time this season … Foster hasn't played since the Dec. 2 game at Princeton, while Pegues and Williams both missed three games before returning last Saturday at Chattanooga 
• The Paladins feature the second-best scoring offense at 81.8 points per game, while they rank last in scoring defense at 78.9 ppg
• Furman ranks sixth nationally in three-point attempts (30.5), 21st in assists per game (17.5), 38th in scoring offense and 42in made threes per game (9.2)
• The Paladins are 6-1 at home this season with the lone setback coming against Division II Anderson (79-74) on Dec. 30 … Overall, Furman has an .850-win percentage (108-19) at home since 2015-16

SERIES HISTORY 

• In a tightly contested series, ETSU holds a 34-33 all-time lead over the Paladins
• Furman swept the season series a year ago and is 6-4 against the Bucs in the last 10 meetings 
• Last year, marked the first time a team swept the regular season series since the Bucs returned to the league in 2014-15, while it was Furman's first sweep since 1986-87 
• The Paladins are 19-10 against the Bucs in games played in Greenville, while claiming eight of the last nine and 11 of the last 14 
• Since rejoining the league in 2014-15, ETSU is 1-8 at Furman, with the Bucs' lone win coming on a Desonta Bradford floater in the lane with 4.5 seconds remaining to secure a 62-61 win back on Jan. 18, 2018

UP NEXT 
ETSU concludes the road swing on Wednesday when the Bucs take on Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. inside Richardson Indoor Stadium. 
  
For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball tab.