SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Feb. 1, 2025) – East Tennessee State University women's basketball shocked the SoCon-leading Wofford 63-50 on Saturday.
5th year guard Courtney Moore had only scored two heading to halftime, needing eight in the game for 1,000 career points. She turned on the jets in the second half, though, and scored her 1,000th career point on a wing 3-pointer with two minutes left in the game to seal the Bucs' (13-9, 4-3 SoCon) win.
Moore's shot made her the first Buc since Erica Haynes-Overton, who did so in 2019, to reach the mark, and her 12 points extended her streak to nine straight games scoring in double digits, continuing the best mark of her career. With the 3-pointer, Moore joined the now-25 member 1,000-point club in ETSU women's basketball history. She has 1,004 career points, and will likely move into 23rd all-time in ETSU history, needing just seven points to pass Missy Marvin and Gwen Washington, during the upcoming homestand.
The trademark Mock Brown defense suffocated Wofford's (14-6, 6-1 SoCon) usually potent offense. The Terriers, who ranked 3rd in the SoCon with 69.2 points per game entering the contest, shot 2-for-17 from 3-point range in the first half and 6-for-29 for the game. The 20.7% from behind the arc is Wofford's second worst outing of the season, ahead of only its loss to Kentucky.
The 50 points marks an unusually low score, as only now-No. 2 South Carolina and now-No. 13 Kentucky held the Terriers to lower totals on the season. ETSU also joins the elite SEC programs as the only teams to hold Wofford to under 30% shooting from the field this season.
It's the fewest points the Terriers have scored at home since Nov. 9, 2021, when they scored 48 in a season-opening loss to College of Charleston. The 27.9% shooting from the field is also their worst shooting percentage at home since the loss to the Cougars in 2021. Lastly, the Wofford performance from the field stands as its worst in conference play since March 7, 2021, in a loss to Mercer.
Redshirt junior guard Paige Lyons led ETSU with 15 points, her fourth double-digit game of conference play. She hit a pair of 3-pointers, a season high, and added three rebounds and a steal. Senior guard Braylyn Milton scored ten, and Moore combined five rebounds with her 12 points. Junior forward Meghan Downing knocked down the second 3-pointer of her career and led the Bucs on the glass with seven rebounds
Lyons got the Bucs on the board with an early jumper, continuing her hot stretch from the Furman contest. ETSU trailed 8-2 and 15-8 at points through the first quarter, in part due to the Terriers' ten offensive rebounds that Wofford converted to seven second chance points, before the Bucs went on a run.
5th year forward Isabella Hunt got an offensive rebound of her own and made the putback layup with 1:55 to play. On the ensuing possession, freshman guard Lucy Hood took a steal coast-to-coast and hit both free throws after drawing a foul on the layup attempt. Milton closed the quarter by making a pair of 3-pointers, and ETSU led 18-17 after the first.
After Wofford hit the first shot of the second, the Bucs went on a 7-0 run, primarily at the free throw line. Stingy defense for both sides dominated the quarter, as ETSU and Wofford combined to go 5-32 from the field and 0-15 from beyond the arc in the frame.
Both defenses continued to have a stranglehold on the game throughout the opening minutes of the second half, as neither squad scored in the first three minutes. For the second quarter in a row, both teams combined to make just five shots, but the Bucs made three, with Lyons' second triple and two from Snotherly, and led 38-34 heading to the fourth.
Having leaned on the defense throughout the game, the Buccaneer offense got hot in the fourth. Downing's 3-pointer came just four seconds in, and Moore and Hood followed with triples of their own. The Terriers cut the lead to 49-40 with 5:03 to play, but the Blue & Gold defense stepped up one last time, forcing two of Wofford's 14 turnovers, including Hunt's second drawn charge of the game.
Then, with the lead at 51-43 after the teams traded baskets, Moore caught a pass from freshman guard Carmen Richardson deep on the wing and cemented herself in ETSU history to put the win on ice.
Next, the Bucs return home to take on Western Carolina at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6.
For more information on Buccaneer women's basketball, follow @ETSU_WBB on X (Twitter) and Instagram, and visit ETSUBucs.com.
