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ETSU bounces back with key SoCon win on Thursday

 JOHNSON CITY – Four members of the ETSU women’s basketball team finished the day in double figures to help fuel a 78-59 win over Furman on Thursday night at Brooks Gym. With Thursday’s victory, the Bucs improve to 15-6 overall and 4-2 in SoCon play.

Four different Buccaneers finished the night in double figures. Nevaeh Brown led all scorers with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field to go with six rebounds and three assists. Breanne Beatty added 14 points of her own and made four 3-pointers. Brecken Snotherly (11 points) and Courtney Moore (10 points) both finished the night in double figures as well. Meghan Downing narrowly missed on a double-double with nine points, nine rebounds to go with three blocks.

The most back-and-forth quarter of the night occurred in the opening one as three of the seven lead changes happened in the first. Furman relied heavily on points in the paint to power their offense, while the Bucs got out and ran to eight fastbreak points. With the difference in styles, the Bucs held a 20-18 lead after one quarter. Beatty netted eight of her 14 points in the first to help ETSU get off to a good start.

ETSU would build its lead out to five points around the midway point of the second. However, neither team found much rhythm offensively as they combined to shoot 10-for-28 from the field and 2-for-12 from 3-point range. Even with the offense not clicking as well as it had in the previous frame, the Bucs still added to their lead and led by four, 34-30 at the half.

The Bucs really started to get things rolling in the third. ETSU started the third quarter with an 18-2 run that built its lead out to 20 points, 52-32, with a little over four minutes left in the stanza. As a team, the Buccaneers shot an impressive 9-for-12 from the field to go with a 5-for-8 effort from the free throw line to seize control of the game. Furman did chip away at the Buccaneer lead, but ETSU still led by 15, 59-44, heading to the fourth.

Furman did not put much more of a dent into the Buccaneer lead in the final 10 minutes. Brown netted eight of her 19 points in the final frame to provide the bulk of ETSU’s offense. The Bucs also finished strong at the free throw line going 8-for-10 in the final quarter. ETSU would go on to claim its third straight win over Furman, 78-59.

The 78 points by ETSU on Thursday were the most by the Bucs against Furman since 2001 (82 points). Furthermore, the 19-point win over the Paladins is also ETSU’s largest against Furman since 1987 (114-89). ETSU was just one point shy of the team’s season-high in points (79 vs. Charleston Southern), matched its season-high with six blocks and set a new season-best with 19 made free throws.

ETSU will have a short turnaround as it will be in action again on Saturday when it takes on Wofford. That game will be played at Freedom Hall as a part of a doubleheader with ETSU’s men’s basketball team. The women’s game will tip-off at 1:30 p.m. with the men’s game vs. The Citadel to follow at 4 p.m.