KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Dec. 20, 2024) – The ETSU men's basketball team closes out non-conference play as the Buccaneers travel to the Midwest to take on Kansas City on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. ET inside Swinney Center.
GAME INFO
DATE: Saturday, Dec. 21
TIME: 2 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Swinney Center (Kansas City, Mo.)
TEAMS: ETSU (7-5) at Kansas City (7-7)
LIVE VIDEO: Summit League Network (Neil Harwell/Michael Watson)
LIVE STATS: KCRoos.com
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 (Jay Sandos)
TWITTER: @ETSU_MBB
ABOUT THE BUCS
- ETSU improved to 7-5 on the season following its 84-58 win over Elon on Wednesday night
- The Bucs led wire-to-wire en route to throttling the Phoenix by 26 points inside Freedom Hall
- Wednesday was ETSU's first wire-to-wire win of the season and the first since defeating The Citadel 81-63 back on Feb. 28, 2024, in Charleston, S.C.
- Roosevelt Wheeler scored a career-high nine points and grabbed five rebounds on Wednesday, while Quimari Peterson and Jaden Seymour combined for 36 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists
- Following Wednesday's win, ETSU is now 6-1 at home this season, while generating a +17.0 scoring margin (80.6-63.6)
- After scoring a team-high 19 points on Wednesday, Quimari Peterson has now taken over as the sole scoring leader in the SoCon as the Buccaneer point guard is averaging 17.8 points per game
- For the season, Peterson has scored 213 points, grabbed 55 rebounds, dished out 54 assists and forced 20 steals … Peterson is just one of six NCAA Division I players who have totaled over 200 points, 50 rebounds and 50 assists this season … Joining Peterson in that group are Marquette's Kameron Jones, Merrimack's Adam Clark, Long Beach State's Devin Askew, Weber State's Blaise Threatt and SIU Edwardsville's Ray'Sean Taylor
- ETSU's Jaden Seymour and Quimari Peterson have been the dynamic duo in the early going for the Blue & Gold … The Buccaneer duo have scored 414 of ETSU's 909 points, resulting in 46% of the Bucs' scoring output … Peterson and Seymour rank first and second in the SoCon in scoring … Peterson is averaging 17.8 points per game and Seymour is at 16.8 per contest … The duo also rank fourth and sixth in the league in field goal percentage with Peterson hitting at a 52.4 percent clip and Seymour is at 49.0 … Peterson has totaled 213 points and Seymour is at 201 … Seymour and Peterson are just eight sets of teammates who have scored 200 points or more this season … Peterson and Seymour are the only teammates who rank one-two in their respective conference in scoring.
- Jaden Seymour scored his 1,000th career point and 1,000th point as a Buccaneer in the win over USC Upstate on Nov. 22 … Seymour became the 43rd 1,000-point scorer in program history and now is 30th in program history with 1,113 career points … Seymour needs three points to pass Alvin West (1988-91) for 29th and 45 to pass Marcus Reese (1981-84) for 28th … Overall, Seymour has 1,124 points with 11 of those coming during his freshman season at Wichita State.· With Wednesday's win, ETSU is now 5-0 this season when leading at halftime, 7-1 when making more field goals, 6-0 with a better field goal percentage, 4-1 with a better free throw percentage, 6-1 when forcing more turnovers and 6-0 when having more blocked shots
- After hitting seven threes against Elon, ETSU has made at least one three-pointer in 1,171 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 KANSAS CITY
- Kansas City has won three straight and is 7-7 on the season
- The Roos are coming off a 74-64 win at Wichita State on Tuesday night, while Kansas City has also defeated Bowling Green and Portland during this three-game win streak
- Kansas City has won four of its five games at home and is 14-4 at home since last season
- The Roos are averaging 77.5 points and giving up 65.1 through their first 14 games of the season
- Kansas City leads the Summit League in scoring defense (65.1), scoring margin (12.4), steals per game (9.4) and turnovers forced per game (14.7)
- Jamar Brown leads Kansas City as the senior guard/forward is averaging 15.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, along with shooting 44 percent from three-point range and just under 50 percent from the field
- Kansas City was picked to win the Summit League by the coaches, while Brown landed a spot on the first team all-conference list
SERIES HISTORY
- Saturday is the second all-time meeting between the two programs
- ETSU defeated Kansas City 70-57 last Dec. 20 inside Freedom Hall
- Ebby Asamoah scored a game-high 24 points, while Karon Boyd added nine points and 10 rebounds
- ETSU held the Roos to 29 percent shooting (16-56), while the Bucs went 20-of-26 at the free throw line and scored 25 points off 18 Kansas City turnovers
- This is the first time ETSU is playing a game in Kansas City since Dec. 29-30, 1993, when the Bucs played in the Golden Harvest Tournament … ETSU fell 88-84 to SMU and 86-73 to Rhode Island
- ETSU also played in Kansas City during the 1988-89 season when the Bucs were in the BMA Holiday Classic … ETSU beat Cal-Sacramento 98-82 on Dec. 28 and fell to SW Missouri State (now Missouri State) 72-68 on Dec. 29
UP NEXT
ETSU opens Southern Conference play on New Year's when the Bucs host VMI at 12 p.m. inside Freedom Hall.
For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball tab.
