JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 3, 2024) – The ETSU women's basketball team fell to Wofford at Freedom Hall on Saturday by a score of 77-65. With Saturday's loss, the Buccaneers dip to 15-7 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play.
 
Nevaeh Brown paced the Buccaneers on the score sheet with 17 points on Saturday. It was Brown's fifth straight game scoring in double figures and her 11^th in the last 12 games. Journee McDaniel provided an offensive spark off the bench with 11 points in just 13 minutes of action that included a trio of makes from beyond the arc. Meghan Downing rounded out the double-digit scorers matching a career-high with 10 points. Downing also snatched a team-high eight rebounds to go with a pair of blocks. As a team, ETSU also set a new season-high with 13 made 3-pointers on Saturday.
 
Wofford drained a couple of early 3-pointers and jumped out an 8-3 lead. ETSU, however, promptly answered with an 8-2 run of its own to get its first lead of the day, 11-10. Another run was in the Terriers as they scored 10 of the next 11 points to lead the Buccaneers by 10, 22-12, after one quarter of play. 12 of Wofford's points in the opening frame were off Buccaneer turnovers.
 
Facing its second-largest deficit after the first quarter this season (11 vs. Lipscomb), ETSU responded well. The Bucs shot 62.5 percent from the field and went 6-for-9 from 3-point range to rapidly cut into Wofford's lead. Brown and Breanne Beatty were especially good as the two combined for 16 points on perfect shooting from the field (6-for-6) and 3-point range (4-for-4). Thanks to the hot shooting by Brown, Beatty and the rest of the Bucs, they got within one possession of Wofford, 38-36, with 2:16 to go in the half. Wofford's offense cooled off a bit in the second but still netted 21 points in the quarter and led the Bucs by five, 43-38, at the break.
 
ETSU's comeback quest continued in the third quarter. A layup from Downing gave ETSU its first lead since the early going, 44-43, with seven minutes to go in the quarter. Even with the Bucs getting the advantage back, Wofford did not let up. The Terriers scored 16 of the last 21 points in the third to build out their lead back to double digits, 59-49, heading to the final quarter of play.
 
The Terriers briefly but their lead out to a game-high 15 points on ETSU with a little over nine minutes to go. Even with the sizable deficit, the Buccaneers never gave up as an 8-0 run by ETSU capped by a layup from Kendall Folley made it a two-possession game with roughly two minutes to go. Wofford, which did not make a field goal in the last 3:32 of the game, withstood some defensive pressure from the Bucs and knocked down a couple of key free throws to finish off the 77-65 win. The victory is Wofford's first in Johnson City since 2017.  
 
ETSU will begin the second half of its SoCon schedule next Thursday when it visits Mercer. The Bucs, who defeated the Bears 77-71 earlier this season in Johnson City, and Bears will tip things off at 7 p.m.
 
For more information on Buccaneer women's basketball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women's basketball tab.