Friday, November 21, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - On what turned out to be a historic regular season home opener, senior guard Courtney Pigram (Memphis) became just the second ETSU men's basketball player in program history to record a triple-double and head coach Murry Bartow picked up his 200th career win, as the Buccaneers trounced non-conference foe Wingate 96-66 Thursday night at Memorial Center.

In front of a crowd of 2,750 fans, Pigram posted game-highs with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to steal the show. He joins former ETSU guard Tim Smith (Newport News, Va.), who posted the program’s first triple-double against Kennesaw State back in 2006. While Pigram rewrote the record books, 6-11 freshman forward Seth Coy (Montgomery, Ind.) also did his part with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and senior forward Kevin Tiggs (Flint, Mich.) matched Pigram with 21 points to lead ETSU (2-2) to the win.

“Obviously, CP played a great game,” said Bartow, who improved his head coaching record to 200-146 all-time. “Courtney played much better than he did in Charleston – really within himself. He played the way we need him to play, scoring 20 and shooting a high percentage. I thought Seth was outstanding as well. He’s really becoming a crowd favorite, and it’s really hard not to get too excited too quickly. We’re talking about a guy that was playing junior varsity his junior year of high school. But tonight it was really a lot of fun to watch him play. He’s a great kid.”

The Bucs shot 60 percent from the floor for the game, and held Wingate (0-2) to just 31 percent from the field. ETSU out-rebounded the Bulldogs 45-33, and forced 20 turnovers, while shooting a strong 78 percent (21-of-27) from the foul line.