JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 28, 2026) – ETSU has beaten all but one opponent in SoCon play this season, and they get a second crack at them Thursday night.
The Buccaneers men's basketball team hosts the Western Carolina Catamounts at Freedom Hall on Thursday, with tip-off set for 7:00pm. ETSU is hosting Black-Out Night on Thursday, and the first 250 fans through the doors will receive a free t-shirt courtesy of Alumni Hall.
MATCHUP: ETSU (15-6, 7-1) vs. Western Carolina (7-12, 3-5)
DATE: January 29, 2026, 7:00pm \
VENUE: Freedom Hall Civic Center (Johnson City, TN)
TV: ESPN+ (Keith Brake, Bruce Tranbarger)
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 (Jay Sandos)
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast
TICKETS: ETSUTickets.com
GAME SPONSOR: TDOT
The Bucs entered the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 at #18 this week, with Wofford the only other SoCon team to receive votes. ETSU won both games last week, a dramatic 67-66 win at Chattanooga on national television followed by an emphatic 84-55 win over The Citadel on Friday. Cam Morris III, Brian Taylor II, and Blake Barkley are all averaging between 14 and 15 points per game for the Bucs. If that holds for the remainder of the season, it will be the first trio to average more than 14 points per game since Courtney Pigram, Mike Smith, and Kevin Tiggs on the 2008-09 Atlantic Sun championship team.
ETSU is the SoCon's most efficient offensive team by effective field goal percentage, with a 55.5% mark that sits just outside the top 50 in the nation. Their field goal defense (40.6%) is 42nd in Division I, and their 66.3 points per game allowed is 26th. While their raw rebounding numbers rank them eighth in the SoCon (34.7), they are third in the conference in rebounding margin and are 12-0 when the win the glass.
The Catamounts defeated ETSU 72-68 two weeks ago and come to Johnson City after bulldozing VMI 88-58 in a game where they hit 13 threes on 40% shooting from beyond the arc and won rebounding 47-20. WCU's best offense is the missed shot: they are 11th in the nation with 14.26 offensive rebounds per game, led by Samuel Dada's 3.11 that ranks 55th nationally for an individual. Cord Stansberry and Marcus Kell continue to pace the offense with scoring averages of 13.6 and 13.3 points per game, respectively.
The ETSU-Western Carolina rivalry predates the Buccaneers moniker at ETSU. The two teams first met in 1931 and have played 95 times, making the Catamounts ETSU's third most common opponent in men's basketball. The Bucs own a large advantage in the series overall at 63-32, but the Catamounts have won eight of the last nine, including five straight in Cullowhee after their victory earlier this season. ETSU's last win in the series was January 22, 2025, when Jayden Seymour dropped 34 on the Catamounts to key an 85-58 rout at Freedom Hall.
For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com.
