ETSU readies for final home game against Wofford

It's not for the Southern Conference championship anymore, but there's still plenty of motivation for the East Tennessee State basketball team. The Bucs clinched the SoCon regular-season championship outright with their win over UNC Greensboro on Saturday, combined with Wofford's loss to Furman. Now, the Bucs (21-8 overall, 13-3 SoCon) will host Wofford (18-11, 10-6) on Wednesday 7 p.m. in the final home game of the season. ETSU wants to give the home crowd a game to remember. The home record 13-3 matches the SoCon mark, although the Bucs lost their last game at Freedom Hall, an 82-72 overtime loss to Samford. Brian Taylor II was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week after totaling 17 points and eight rebounds in ETSU's 78-69 win at Furman. He finished with 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting in the title-clinching 87-75 win at UNC Greensboro. ETSU's post players thrived when the Bucs won 86-72 at Wofford three weeks ago. Cam Morris III had 22 points, followed by Jordan McCullum with 17 points and Blake Barkley with 11 points and six rebounds. Barkley returned to the lineup in Greensboro after missing the previous game at Furman with a foot injury. The 6-8 post played 31 minutes and finished with nine points and five rebounds. It broke a streak of 14 straight games in double figures for the junior transfer from Northwestern. Like most of the Bucs' games this season, the first ETSU-Wofford contest was tight at halftime. The Bucs led 41-39 before pulling away late. The Terriers were without leading scorer Kahmere Holmes, who has since returned. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard had 22 points in the loss to Furman. He's averaging 19.2 points and 5.8 points per game. Nils Machowski, another 6-3 guard, is second on the Terriers at 16.5 points per game. With Holmes absent at the previous ETSU game, Machowski led the team with 23 points. Chace Watley, the Terriers' talented 6-2 freshman guard, had 19 against the Bucs. He's right at double digits at 9.8 points per game. Cayden Vasko, a 6-6 junior guard, averages 10.6 points per game. He was held to five points, but had five assists in the first matchup. Brian Sumpter, a 6-9 lanky freshman, had 12 points against the Bucs, while reserve guard Brendan Rigsbee scored 11 in that game. The Terriers were also missing Luke Flynn, who has battled an ankle injury this season. Regardless of who's out there, teams have struggled against ETSU's defense and depth. The Bucs are the only SoCon team allowing opponents less than 70 points (68.4) per game, and are leading the league at nine steals per game. They also have the widest margin of victory (10.2 per game). ETSU had nine players with 12 or more minutes in the win over the Spartans. Jaylen Smith had 12 points and Isaiah Sutherland scored 10. Starting point guard Allen Strothers is the team's assists leader with 92 on the season, and Maki Johnson has hit 47-of-117 from 3-point range for 40.2 percent. Milton Matthews III has also come on strong lately. He led the team with 18 points, all on 3-point shots, against Furman. He became the seventh player to lead ETSU in scoring in a game this season.