JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 21, 2025) – Following last Saturday's thrilling win at league-leading Samford, the ETSU men's basketball team opens a two-game home stand when the Buccaneers host Western Carolina on Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Freedom Hall.  
 
GAME INFO
DATE: Wednesday, Jan. 21
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Freedom Hall (Johnson City, Tenn.)
TEAMS: ETSU (11-8, 4-2) vs. Western Carolina (5-12, 1-5)
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ (Keith Brake/Bruce Tranbarger)
LIVE STATS: ETSUBucs.com
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 (Jay Sandos)
TWITTER: @ETSU_MBB
TICKETS: ETSUTickets.com
GAME SPONSOR: TDOT

STUDENT GROUP TICKET PROMO
 

ABOUT THE BUCS

• ETSU is 11-8 overall and 4-2 in SoCon play
• The Bucs are coming off a thrilling 65-60 road win at Samford last Saturday, snapping the Bulldogs' 28-game home win streak
• ETSU held Samford 27 points below its season scoring average, while it was the Bulldogs' first home loss since Feb. 25, 2023, against Furman and it was their lowest point total in a home loss since Jan. 30, 2016, when Chattanooga held Samford to 56 points
• As a team, ETSU shot 100% percent (8-8) at the free throw line in the second half and went 9-of-11 for the contest
• Quimari Peterson led the Blue & Gold with 19 points and five rebounds, while Jaden Seymour notched his 11th career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds … Maki Johnson netted 11 points, including a clutch three-pointer with less than 45 seconds remaining, and Karon Boyd finished with eight points, 11 rebounds, three steals, three blocks and two assists
• ETSU returns home where the Bucs are 8-2 inside Freedom Hall this season
• In their 10 home games this season, ETSU is shooting 48 percent from the field (290-605) and averaging 79.6 points per game … The Bucs have a plus-14.9 scoring margin at home, while averaging 16.0 assists and forcing 14.3 turnovers per game … Opponents are averaging just 64.7 points per game, while shooting 41.5 percent from the field (233-562) and 30 percent from beyond the arc (68-224) … Quimari Peterson (17.1), Jaden Seymour (16.3), John Buggs III (13.2) and Karon Boyd (10.1) are all averaging in double figures scoring at home, while Buggs is shooting 48 percent (31-64) from three inside Freedom Hall this season.
• ETSU has gone 108-37 (.745) inside Freedom Hall since the start of the 2015-16 season
• With ETSU's eight made threes on Saturday, the Bucs have made at least one three-pointer in 1,178 straight games – the third-longest streak in the country
• Quimari Peterson is averaging a SoCon-best 18.4 points per game, while Jaden Seymour is tied for third at 16.6 points per game
• Peterson ranks 22nd nationally in field goals made (132) and is 38th in points (349)
• John Buggs III ranks 19th nationally in three-pointers made (57), 21st in three-point percentage (.442) and 31st in three-pointers made per game (3.0)
• 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 22nd in program history with 1,228 career points … Seymour ranks 20th all-time in Buccaneer history in total points scored, while he needs five to pass Rusty Woy (1951-54) for 19th and 29 to pass Desonta Bradford (2014-18) for 18th … Overall, Seymour has 1,239 points with 11 of those coming during his freshman season at Wichita State
• 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 

ABOUT WESTERN CAROLINA    

• Western Carolina enters Wednesday's game with an overall record of 5-12 and a SoCon mark of 1-5
• The Catamounts have dropped back-to-back games as Western Carolina fell to UNCG on Saturday and at VMI last Wednesday
• Western Carolina's lone conference win was an 85-82 victory over Mercer on Jan. 12 in Cullowhee, N.C.
• The Catamounts have dropped all eight games away from Cullowhee, N.C.
• Western Carolina is led by Bernard Pelote and Cord Stansberry … Pelote is averaging 12.8 points and 7.6 rebounds, while Stansberry is posting 11.1 points per game
• As a team, the Catamounts are averaging 68.2 points and allowing 77.9 per game

SERIES HISTORY

• Wednesday is the 93rd all-time meeting between the two programs
• ETSU leads the all-time series, 62-30, but Western Carolina has won the last six meetings
• The Bucs' last win in the series was an 87-69 win back on Jan. 10, 2022, inside Freedom Hall
• Prior to this current WCU run, ETSU had won 14 straight in the series and 31 of the last 32 meetings
• ETSU is 34-10 all-time against the Catamounts in Johnson City
• Forty-eight games in the series have been decided by nine points or less with ETSU winning 28 of them … Twenty-six games have been decided by five points or less with Western Carolina going 16-10 in those contests … Seventeen games have been decided by three points or less with ETSU winning seven
• The first ever meeting was won by Western Carolina, 43-41 in 1933-34, while ETSU's first win came a year later – a 40-37 victory

UP NEXT
ETSU hosts longtime rival Chattanooga on Saturday at 4 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.