SoCon recap of Saturday's MBB games

Saturday, February 25, 2023

After Saturday's games, all the seeds for the upcoming SoCon tournament are now filled. With Furman's win over Samford, the two teams will share the championship, and Furman receiving the number one seed in the tournament.  This was possible with ETSU's one point win over UNCG, dropping the Spartans into the 3rd place seed for the tournament. Wofford's win over Chattanooga put the Terriers in that coveted 6th place seed and dropped the Mocs into the 7th place seed and the play-in bracket, on the "Road to Asheville."

Furman 93 - Samford 79
Mike Bothwell totaled 35 points and JP Pegues added 20 to lead Furman past Samford, 93-79, on Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center as the Paladins claimed a share of the Southern Conference regular season title and secured the No. 1 seed for the SoCon Men's Basketball Championship. The Paladins, who improved to 24-7 overall and 15-3 in the SoCon, garnered their first share of the conference title since 2017 and captured the top seed for the first time since 1991. Furman will face the winner of Friday's first round matchup between No. 8 seed Mercer and No. 9 The Citadel in the quarterfinal round of the SoCon Tournament on Saturday, March 4, at the Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville. Tip-off in Asheville, N.C. is set for 12 p.m. and tickets are available at FurmanPaladins.com.

VMI 66 - Western Carolina 85
Vonterius Woolbright recorded the fourth triple-double in Western Carolina's NCAA Division I men's basketball era with 14 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds as the Catamounts closed out the 2022-23 regular season with an 85-66 victory over VMI on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center. WCU concludes the regular season with a 17-14 mark and clinched the No. 4 seed in next weekend's Ingles Southern Conference Tournament with a 10-8 league mark. VMI drops to 7-24 and 2-16. A season-high 3,586 fans witnessed the contest. Woolbright joins Nicholas Robinson (Feb. 4, 2022 at VMI) and Mason Faulkner (Nov. 12, 2019 vs NC A&T and Feb. 26, 2020) as Catamount players with triple-doubles according to available records. Woolbright tied his career-high with 11 assists and of his 10 rebounds, nine were on the defensive glass. Tre Jackson led the Catamounts with 22 points and was joined in double figures by Tyzhaun Claude with 18 points and DJ Campbell with 11. Cam Bacote, Marlow Gilmore, and Tyler Harris were each honored in Senior Day festivities prior to tip-off. Tyler Houser paced VMI with a game-high 26 points, Asher Woods (16), Taeshaud Jackson (12), and Rickey Bradley (10) also finished in double figures for the Keydets.

The Citadel 50 - Mercer 72
The Mercer men's basketball program closed out the regular season on Saturday afternoon with a Senior Day victory over The Citadel, 72-50. Seniors Kamar Robertson, Harrison Drake, Luis Hurtado Jr., Diego Rivera, and John Treanor were honored before the game. The Bears improve to 13-18 overall and 6-12 in the Southern Conference while The Citadel falls to 10-21 on the season and 5-13 in the league. The two teams will meet again in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament on Friday, March 3 at 5 p.m. at the Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville.

UNCG 62 - ETSU 63
After losing by 26 points earlier this month to UNCG in Greensboro, the ETSU men’s basketball team wanted another shot at the Spartans. The Buccaneers got that opportunity in Saturday’s regular season finale and ETSU came up big. Jordan King (Albany, N.Y.) scored a game-high 25 points and Jaden Seymour (Charlotte, N.C.) added 17 points and seven rebounds, and ETSU was able to exhale when Kobe Langley’s three-point shot at the buzzer was off the mark, securing the Bucs a 63-62 victory over the Spartans in front of 3,652 fans inside Freedom Hall. The win locked ETSU into the No. 5 seed in next week’s Southern Conference Tournament, while UNCG’s hopes for sharing the conference crown crumbled following the defeat. The Bucs will now take on No. 4 Western Carolina in Saturday’s quarterfinal at 2:30 p.m. inside Harrah’s Cherokee Center.

Chattanooga 74 - Wofford 86
The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team dropped its regular season Southern Conference finale contest 86-74 at Wofford on Saturday evening inside the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium in Spartanburg, S.C. Following the loss, Chattanooga finishes the season No. 7 in the SoCon standings behind a 15-16 overall record and a 7-11 mark in league action. Wofford punches its ticket to the SoCon quarterfinals as the No. 6 seed behind a 16-15 overall record and an 8-10 tally in conference. The Mocs were dominated on the glass during the defeat, suffering a 40-26 disadvantage in total rebounds while allowing 22 second chance points to the Terriers. For the second game in-a-row, UTC went cold from behind the arc in the second half after finishing the game 3-of-15 (20.0%) from deep over the last 20 minutes.