SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford men's basketball team won its third consecutive game and second in a row by three points, downing ETSU 79-76 on Monday night in the Benjamin Johnson Arena. With the win, Wofford improves to 12-13 on the season and 7-5 in Southern Conference action, while ETSU falls to 18-6 overall and 8-3 in conference play. The Bucs came into the matchup second in the conference and with Wofford's win over Furman earlier in the season, the Terriers have now defeated the top two teams in the league. Wofford is a near perfect 9-1 at home this season.
 
Tonight's win was also the 244^th of Mike Young's career, moving him into second place for most career wins by a Southern Conference coach, pushing him past Burton Shipley of Maryland (1923-1947) and Mack McCarthy of Chattanooga (1985-1997).
 
"Tonight was a great team win," said Young. "ETSU guards the heck out you and is a very good, well coached team. That was a good college basketball game and it was fun to be a part of it."
 
Eric Garcia had the second best scoring performance of his career, leading Wofford with 28 points on 10-14 from the field, 4-6 from beyond the arc and a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line. Fletcher Magee recorded 19+ points for the sixth consecutive game and followed Garcia with 23 points. Magee, who has finished in double digit scoring in all of Wofford's 25 games this season, shot 50% from three point range and 6-7 from the charity stripe.
 
Ryan Sawvell pulled down a team high five rebounds and took four charges in the contest, while also adding four assists in the win. Nathan Hoover finished with nine points and Matthew Pegram tallied seven points, four rebounds and three assists. Cameron Jackson scored six points, recorded four rebounds and finished with a career high five steals.
 
The Terriers got on the board first with a layup by Jackson, but ETSU went on a 9-0 run to take a 9-2 lead. Garcia sunk a three to cut the lead to one at 13-12 but ETSU held on to the lead and never trailed in the half. Magee made a three point basket with 16 seconds to go to trim a six point ETSU lead to three, but T.J. Cromer answered for the Bucs on the other end, nailing a three of his own as time expired and the Bucs led 36-30 at the half.
 
The teams combined for 25 turnovers in the first half as ETSU had 16 at the break and Wofford had nine. The second half was both cleaner (only two turnovers per team) and closer as the Terriers made a charge. ETSU started the half with back to back baskets to extend the lead to 10 points. Their lead remained 10 points with 14 minutes to go, but Magee and Jaylen Allen made back to back three's to cut it to four. The Bucs used another run to stretch the lead back to nine, but again Wofford chipped away at the lead and kept it close.
 
From the under eight media timeout to the under four media timeout, Wofford went on a 10-0 run to turn a 62-58 deficit into a 68-62 lead and the Terriers never relinquished the lead. Cromer again made a clutch three with 13 seconds to go in the game to cut the Wofford lead to one, but Garcia, the nation's third best free throw shooter, sunk two crucial free throws with 13 seconds to go and pushed the lead back to three as the Terriers hung on for the win.  
 
"Tonight we really came up with a big shot every time we needed it," said Young. "We play in a good league with really good players and the ball tends to find good players as it did for us tonight."
 
Cromer led the Bucs with 24 points on 8-13 shooting. Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Devontavius Payne added 11 points each.
 
After shooting just 37% in the first half, Wofford rebounded and shot 53.8% in the second half to finish the game at 45.3%. The opposite was true for the Bucs who shot 63.6% in the first half and only 42.4% in the second half. ETSU led for 31:51 in the contest, Wofford led for 5:49 and the game was tied for 2:20.
 
The Terriers have two more home games this week as part of a three game home stand. Wofford hosts Samford on Thursday, Feb. 9 and Chattanooga on Saturday, Feb. 11. Both games tipoff at 7 p.m. in Benjamin Johnson Arena.