SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Despite Messiah Jones scoring a career-high 19 points, the Wofford men's basketball team was topped by the ETSU Bucs 60-54 in Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night.
"First and foremost I want to thank our seniors and let them know we aren't done yet," said Wofford head coach Jay McAuley. "This is the No. 1 team in the league and we fought tooth and nail with them all night."
Wofford led for the majority of the night, but it was ETSU, which locked up the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Southern Conference Tournament, who took the lead with less than two minutes to play and closed the game out at the free throw line.
"They are well-coached," Wofford head coach Jay McAuley said of ETSU. "Credit to them they made the plays down the stretch and made a couple of huge threes by some guys that have been in those moments."
The Terriers shot 45.8 percent from the floor, but just 21.1 percent from 3-point range (4-for-19) while the Bucs went 7-for-17 from behind the arc (41.2 percent). Wofford got massive contributions from its bench, outscoring the ETSU reserves 35-6 but the Bucs totaled 18 points off of turnovers.
Jones, who was 9-for-11 from the field, grabbed five rebounds and recorded three blocks in the loss. Nathan Hoover, who was one of three seniors honored on Wednesday, totaled 11 points and freshman Isaiah Bigelow scored nine points, grabbed three rebounds and totaled two blocks.
"I think ETSU spreads out and pressures us," said McAuley. "And when he (Messiah) is able to operate down in space, he's a pretty crafty kid."
Wofford is now 16-14 overall this season, falling to 8-9 in Southern Conference play while ETSU improves to 26-4 and 15-2 in league play. The Terriers are now locked into the No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 The Citadel in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament on Friday, March 6.
Jones was the story early, swatting a pair of shots and scoring two buckets, leading to a pair of 3-pointers from Storm Murphy and Bigelow as the Terriers jumped in front 10-2. The Bucs cut the deficit to three but baskets from Bigelow, Murphy and Hollowell made the score 20-13 with 5:43 to play in the first.
Hoover would get into the mix, scoring in the lane and knocking down a 3-pointer to push the lead to 10. Jones would end the half just as he started it, taking a feed from Murphy to send Wofford into the break ahead 29-19.
Jones picked up right where he left off in the second, scoring on a post-up and converting a feed from Stumpe as Wofford held on to a nine-point advantage. The freshman continued to deliver, with Jones and Bigelow swatting a pair of shots and Jones hitting a mid-range jumper before the shot clock expired to keep the advantage at 10 with 12 minutes to play.
Tray Boyd III and ETSU charged back, tying the game at 44-44 at the eight-minute mark. After the Terriers missed their next shot, Bigelow snagged an offensive rebound and powered through contact to give Wofford a three-point lead.
The Bucs would take their first lead of the game and knock down a 3-pointers with under five minutes to play before Hoover responded with a fall-away jumper to make the score 51-49 in favor of ETSU. Bigelow fed Jones for a three-point play but ETSU's Bo Hodges threw down a lob to put the Bucs back in front. Boyd III connected from downtown once again, adding two free throws to clinch the game for ETSU.
Wofford will close out the regular season at Mercer on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
"We've got a big game Saturday that we'll attack and prepare as we always do," McAuley said. "Obviously, heading into tournament play the slate will be clean and we have to go down there with a belief that we can get it done, and I know we've got a group of guys that will do that."
