ASHEVILLE, N.C. (Mar. 9, 2026) - For the second straight year, the SoCon's outright regular season champion was thwarted at the final hurdle. 

The ETSU men's basketball team fell 76-61 to Furman in the 2026 SoCon Men's Basketball Championship title game on Monday at Harrah's Cherokee Center. 

Allen Strothers gave the Buccaneers (23-11) their first lead, 4-3, with a right-block jumper off a pistol action at 18:3x, but Asa Thomas hit back-to-back threes to give Furman the lead right back and start a 7-0 run for the Paladins (22-12). The lead ballooned to eight before Isaiah Sutherland hit a three from the top of the key and ETSU scored nine of the next eleven points to trim it to 23-22. Furman bounced back with a 14-5 run that included eight points from Cooper Bowser to lead 37-27 at the under-four media timeout and led 42-35 at the break.  

The Paladins scored eight of the first 11 points of the second half to stretch the lead back to double digits, which they sustained until Taylor dunked a runout with two hands with 3:57 to play to cut it to 68-59. Furman found an answer, however, and Alex Wilkins scored four of the final six points to keep ETSU at arm's length and win Furman's second SoCon tournament crown in four seasons. 

Taylor led ETSU with 16 points, while Barkley added 14 and Smith scored 10. Barkley led the team in rebounding for the fourth straight game with four. Smith had three assists, and Taylor and Maki Johnson had two steals each. As a team ETSU shot 24-for-50 (48%) from the field but just 3-for-16 (19%) from three and 10-for-17 (59%) at the free throw line. Furman won the glass decisively, 35-24. 

ETSU will now await opportunities to play in other postseason tournaments. Follow ETSU men's basketball on X and Instagram and stay tuned to ETSUBucs.com for more information.