HARRISONBURG, Va. (Dec. 2, 2024) – Finishing off November with a fourth straight win Saturday against Austin Peay, the ETSU men's basketball team now embarks on a three-game road swing starting Tuesday night at James Madison. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Atlantic Union Bank Center.
 
GAME INFO
DATE: Tuesday, Dec. 3
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Atlantic Union Bank Center (Harrisonburg, Va.)
TEAMS: ETSU (6-2) at James Madison (4-4)
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ (Curt Dudley/Kirby Dean)
LIVE STATS: JMUSports.com
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 (Jay Sandos)
TWITTER: @ETSU_MBB
 
ABOUT THE BUCS
·      ETSU has won four straight and sits 6-2 on the season
·      The Bucs are coming off a 79-57 win over Austin Peay last Saturday inside Freedom Hall
·      ETSU's last two wins have been by 20 points or more, marking the first time the Bucs have accomplished this feat against back-to-back Division I teams since the 2018-19 season when the Blue & Gold beat Chattanooga (96-70) and The Citadel (98-73)
·      All four wins during this run have been by double digits where ETSU has a plus-17.0 scoring margin (80.8-63.8) … The Bucs also have a plus-11.5 rebound margin during this four-game win streak (43.0-31.5) and ETSU is outscoring its opponents 181-114 in the second half
·      Overall, ETSU leads the SoCon in rebound margin (7.5), while ranking second in offensive rebounds per game (13.8), blocks per game (3.9), three-point percentage (36.5), three-point percentage defense (28.1) and turnover margin (2.6)
·      Quimari Peterson leads the SoCon in total points scored (146) and is second in points per game (18.3) … Peterson also ranks third in assist/turnover ratio (2.5), fourth in field goal percentage (53.6) and fifth in assists per game (4.1)
·      ETSU has had five different leading scorers in its first eight games … Peterson has led the Bucs in four of them, while Jaden Seymour, John Buggs III and Maki Johnson have also paced the Blue & Gold in scoring … Seymour and Peterson tied the Bucs with 28-point efforts against USC Upstate
·      Sitting at 6-2, this is ETSU's best eight-game start to a season since the 2019-20 campaign when the Bucs opened 9-1
·      In the KenPom rankings, the Bucs are ninth nationally in offensive rebound percentage (40.2) and 35th in steal percentage (7.4)
·      After hitting eight threes versus Austin Peay, ETSU has made at least one three-pointer in 1,167 straight games – the third-longest streak in the country
·      ETSU was picked to finish third in the SoCon Preseason Coaches Poll … The Bucs picked up two first-place votes, while reigning champion Samford was pegged number one and Chattanooga was selected second
·      Jaden Seymour and Quimari Peterson landed SoCon preseason honors
·      The Bucs return 10 players from last year's 2023-24 roster
·      ETSU only lost 8% of its scoring and 9% of its minutes played from last year's roster to the transfer portal – the fewest amount of production from any SoCon program 
·      Coach Savage and his staff brought in five new players to complete the 2024-25 roster … The five newcomers include four transfers – Curt Lewis (Missouri), John Buggs III (North Texas), Davion Bradford (Wake Forest) and Roosevelt Wheeler (VCU) … In addition, true freshman Brandon Crawford is the fifth Buccaneer newcomer
 
ABOUT JAMES MADISON     
·      The Dukes have split their first eight games to start the season
·      JMU is coming off a 66-61 setback to Georgia Mason on Friday in Harrisonburg
·      The Dukes have won two of their three home games this season with wins against Ohio and Mary Baldwin
·      JMU leads the Sun Belt in effective field goal percentage (.545), three-pointers made per game (10.0) and rebound margin (9.3), while ranking second in scoring offense (77.3) and bench scoring (28.1)
·      The Dukes' leading scorer is Bryce Lindsay as he's posting 15.0 points per game in 25.4 minutes off the bench … Lindsay also leads the club with 26 made threes
·      JMU is the reigning Sun Belt Tournament champion as the Dukes went 32-4 overall and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after defeating No. 5 seed Wisconsin in the first round
·      The Dukes were picked to finish second in the Sun Belt, while Mark Freeman and Xavier Brown earned preseason all-conference honors … Brown is averaging 14.6 points per game and Freeman is at 11.9 per contest
 
SERIES HISTORY
·      Tuesday marks the 13th all-time meeting between the two schools
·      ETSU leads all-time series, 7-5
·      This will be the first matchup since Dec. 5, 2012, when JMU won 70-45 in Harrisonburg
·      The Bucs have won six of the last 10 meetings, including three straight from 2000-2012 … ETSU's last win against JMU was a 70-56 victory on Jan. 30, 2012
·      ETSU's last win at JMU was on Dec. 30, 2000, when the Bucs defeated the Dukes, 73-63
 
UP NEXT
ETSU heads to Kansas to take on Wichita State on Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET.
  
For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball tab.