CHARLESTON, S.C. (Mar. 1, 2025) - It took about 10 minutes of game time for ETSU to find their groove on offense, but once they did, there was no catching them.

ETSU defeated The Citadel 81-66 on Saturday at McAlister Fieldhouse in Charleston to close the 2024-25 regular season. Quimari Peterson led the way with 25 points, and Maki Johnson led the bench with 14 points.

Christian Moore scored 31 seconds in to put the Buccaneers (19-12,12-6) behind the Bulldogs (5-24, 0-18), a lead that never grew to more than three points but held firm while the Bucs needed time to find their feet offensively. Johnson hit the team's first field goal, a three with 14:38 to go in the first half.

The Bucs then outscored the Bulldogs 23-6 over the ensuing 10 minutes, including a 17-0 run that began with a Peterson three-pointer with 8:30 to go that proved to be the game's only lead change. Peterson scored nine of the 17 points in the run, and Johnson scored the other eight. By the time The Citadel got the run stopped, the Bucs were well out in front, and stayed that way into halftime, leading by 15 at the break.

The Bulldogs made a valiant push out of the half, but Karon Boyd and Peterson hit layups less than a minute apart to get the advantage back to double-digits, and the Bucs held firm the rest of the way.

As a team, the Buccaneers shot 31-of-53 from the field (58.5%) and 9-of-16 from three (56.3%), and won the rebounding count, 32-28. In addition to Peterson's 25 and Johnson's 14, Karon Boyd scored 14 points, mostly in the second half, along with six rebounds. D.J. Hughes reached double-digits for the third time in five games with 10 points, six rebounds, and three blocked shots. Allen Strothers had a team-high nine assists.

With the Bucs' win and UNCG's 108-100 win over Samford on Saturday, the Buccaneers are the number three seed in the 2025 SoCon Men's Basketball Championship and will play Wofford in the quarterfinals on Saturday, March 8, at 6 p.m. at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville. Single-session tickets are available at ETSUTickets.com.

For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball tab.