Saturday, February 12, 2011

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Putting together a dominating offensive effort in the first half, the ETSU men’s basketball team built a 24-point halftime lead and held off a Jacksonville rally late in the second half to take an 80-64 win in Atlantic Sun Conference play Friday evening inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center.

A crowd of 3,890 fans looked on as the Buccaneers improved to 18-9 overall, 13-3 in A-Sun play, building a two-game lead over Jacksonville for second place in the conference standings. Meanwhile, the Dolphins dropped to 16-8, 10-5.

“If you told me before the game that we will win by 16 I would obviously take it,” said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow, whose team has won 14 of its last 16 games. “I thought offensively we played as well as we have all year in the first half. The second half was not exactly what we like to see, but we’ll take the win.”

The Buccaneers shot 55 percent from the field in the first half and dominated statistically. But after the break, Jacksonville managed to battle back into the game and cut the ETSU lead to just 10 points at 70-60 with 3:09 left in the contest. However, the Bucs then hit 10-of-10 from the line to ice the victory.