BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Feb. 23, 2024) – Coming off a midweek home win over VMI, the ETSU men's basketball team hits the road again as the Buccaneers take on league-leading Samford on Saturday afternoon in Birmingham. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. ET inside Pete Hanna Center.
 
GAME INFO
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 24
TIME: 3 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Pete Hanna Center 
TEAMS: ETSU (14-14, 6-9) at Samford (24-4, 13-2) 
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: ETSUBucs.com
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 | 104.9 NASH ICON (Jay Sandos)
TWITTER: @ETSU_MBB
 
ABOUT THE BUCS
·      ETSU sits at 14-14 overall and 6-9 in SoCon play
·      The Bucs snapped a three-game skid with their 82-69 win over VMI on Wedneday night
·      Four Bucs scored in double figures while ETSU netted a season-high 52 first half points
·      Quimari Peterson notched his first double-double after finishing with 13 points, 10 assists and five rebounds … The 10 assists marked a career-high, while he became just the sixth Buccaneer to dish out 10-plus assists in a game since the start of the 2010-11 season
·      Peterson joined Daivien Williamson, David Sloan, Tray Boyd III, Adam Sollazzo and Petey McClain as the only ETSU players since 2010-11 to have 10-plus assists in a game
·      Peterson is just the fourth Buccaneer since that time frame to have a double-double with 10-plus assists … Williamson, Sloan (twice) and Boyd were the other Bucs to accomplish the feat
·      Peterson is one of 75 Division I players this season to have posted at least 10 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in a game this year
·      Ebby Asamoah reached a personal milestone in the VMI win as he netted his 200th career three-pointer … Asamoah now has 202 for his career and he's 12 points shy of 1,000
·      Jadyn Parker enters the game with 64 blocked shots on the season and he's three shy of passing Zakee Wadood (2002-03) for third all-time
·      Jaden Seymour and Ebby Asamoah are both averaging 15.0 points per game, while Quimari Peterson is at 13.3 points per game
·      As a team, ETSU ranks 16th nationally in offensive rebounds per game (13.6) and 25th in blocks per game (5.0)
·      Individually, Ebby Asamoah ranks 13th in three-point attempts (224), 36th in made threes (76) and 38th in 3-point field goals made per game (2.8) … Jadyn Parker is seventh in blocks (64) and 14th in blocks per game (2.3) and Karon Boyd is 43rd in offensive rebounds per game (3.0)
·      Since Feb. 16, 1987 in a game against Davidson, the Bucs have made at least one 3-pointer in 1,152 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 1,218 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 SAMFORD
·      Samford enters the weekend with an overall record of 24-4 and league mark of 13-2
·      The Bulldogs' 24 wins are tied for the most in program history
·      Samford is looking to wrap up the SoCon regular season title and No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with a win on Saturday
·      The Bulldogs are a perfect 16-0 at home this season and are coming off a 74-72 win over reigning conference champion Furman on Wednesday
·      Samford is led by Achor Achor as he's averaging 15.0 points and 5.8 rebounds, while shooting just under 60 percent from the floor on the season
·      As a team, Samford ranks third nationally in three-point percentage (.403), fourth in scoring offense (87.3) and fastbreak points (16.2), fifth in steals per game (10.5), effective field goal percentage (.576) and bench points (35.0), sixth in turnovers forced per game (17.2), seventh in assists per game (18.3) and eighth in field goal percentage (49.5)
·      Samford ranks 11th in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll
 
SERIES HISTORY
·      ETSU leads the all-time series, 16-5; however, Samford has won the last four meetings
·      The Bucs were edged by the Bulldogs 75-72 last month inside Freedom Hall
·      ETSU's last win over Samford was back on Jan. 15, 2022 when the Bucs won 88-85 in Birmingham
·      Three of the games in the series have gone to overtime with the Bucs winning all three
·      ETSU is 8-1 all-time against Samford in Birmingham
 
UP NEXT
ETSU plays its final regular season road game on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when the Bucs travel to Charleston, S.C. to take on The Citadel.
  
For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball tab.