SoCon leading ETSU prepares to protect home court on Wednesday against Furman

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The ETSU Buccaneer men’s basketball team will be back on the court Wednesday night when they host the Furman Paladins inside Freedom Hall.

The first-place Bucs in the SoCon are coming off a very impressive victory, 14 points over Wofford Sunday night on the road in Spartanburg.

The Paladins come to Johnson City on a three-game winning streak after Cooper Bowser returned to the lineup following a 10-game absence.

This figures to be a war since the Paladins are the league’s top rebounding team and are second only to ETSU in scoring defense and shooting defense.

“Furman has great size across the board. So starting with the point guard, you know, they can protect the rim a little bit better,” coach Brooks Savage said. “But you know, Furman is such an established program. They know how to win. They get a lot of guys back. A lot of those guys played for a championship last year, you know. So another first-place game we got to play well, big guys.”

According to ETSU forward Cam Muorris III: “We just got to come in and be physical. Just keep doing the same thing we do. We got big guys to it. We just got to be the physical team.”

“You know they’re going to play hard,” ETSU forward Jordan McCollum said. “One of the better teams in the league. So we just got to do what we do. Keep it out of the paint, crash the glass, and we should be able to pull it out.”

The Paladins hold a one-game edge in the all-time series after the Bucs snapped a five-game losing streak to them last season.

Tip-off is at 7 p.m., and News Channel 11 will be live with the coach courtside at 6 p.m.

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