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CONTRIBUTED BY ETSU ATHLETICS

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (July 22, 2020) – The ETSU men’s basketball team will be a part of the Cancun Challenge as the committee announced the field for the 2020 tournament on Wednesday. Due to the pandemic, the tournament has been moved to Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne, Fla.

“We’re very excited for the 2020 edition of the Cancun Challenge,” said men’s Cancun Challenge director Sarah Sullivan. “We have an extremely deep field from top to bottom this year.

“We also want to extend a huge thank you to Eastern Florida State College and the city of Melbourne for their gracious hospitality and welcoming atmosphere this year!”

ETSU, the reigning Southern Conference champion, will play three games in the tournament, beginning with a road game at Mississippi State on Tuesday, Nov. 17 in Starkville.

The Bucs will be eyeing a win over a Southeastern Conference foe for a second straight year after beating LSU last season in Baton Rouge, while ETSU defeated the Bulldogs in its last visit to Humphrey Coliseum in 2016. 

Hanner Mosquera-Perea’s tip-in with 1.4 seconds remaining gave the Bucs a 67-65 win over Mississippi State back on Dec. 14, 2016.

Following its trip to Starkville, ETSU will head to Florida where the Blue and Gold face Bucknell at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24. The winner of ETSU-Bucknell will then play the winner of Rider-Georgia Southern at 3 p.m. on Nov. 25, while the two losing teams will play a consolation game earlier that day at 12:30 p.m.

This will mark ETSU’s first all-time meeting with Bucknell, while the Bucs won their lone meeting with Rider in 1969. ETSU has played Georgia Southern 31 times with the Bucs winning the last two contests – most-recently at 69-64 victory in Statesboro on Nov. 27,  2018.

Details on tickets, hotels, and fan packages are still to come. Fans are asked to refrain from booking lodging until team hotel and other amenities are announced. 

For more information on ETSU men’s basketball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s basketball tab.