SoCon Tournament 2024: Day 1 Recap

SoCon Tournament 2024: Day  1  RECAP

Game 1:

No. 8 Mercer 84, No. 9 The Citadel 76

Game 2:

No. 7 East Tennessee State 98, No. 10 VMI 66

The 104th Southern Confernece Tournament officially got underway a week later into March than normal, however, three of the four teams playing in the opening round were involved in the opening weekend of the tournament some 372 days ago.

East Tennessee State. Mercer, The Citadel and VMI opened as the No. 7-10 seeds in that order.

The opening matchup saw the No. 8 Mercer Bears face off against the No. 9 The Citadel Bulldogs, with the team’s sporting the exact same seeds in the opening matchup of the tournantournament as they did a little over a year ago.

The only major difference was the game was much closer, as the Bears held off a pesky The Citadel team in an 84-76 contest. The Bulldogs, which dropped a 66-41 contest without top player Austin Ashe last season, were in the game for a majority of the night.

The win sees Mercer improve to 16-16 overall, while the Bulldogs conclude their season at 11-21. The Bears now move on to the quarterfinals of the tournament for the fourth-straight season under head coach Greg Gary, and for the second-straight season, will face the top overall seed, as Mercer will face No. 1 Samford in the first of four semifinal matchups slated for Saturday, with tip-off set for noon.

The Bears and Bulldogs split the two regular-season matchups, with Mercer winning the most recent matchup, 88-84, between the two in Macon. The win over The Citadel marked Mercer’s fifth win in its last six games.

The win saw the Bears continue to shoot the ball at an efficient clip from both two-point and three-point range, but it’s been their shooting from three-point land as of late that has most around the league taking notice of late.

Over its last two games against Furman and The Citadel, not only hace the Bears scored 80 or more points in both games, but they are shooting a blsitering 56.6% from long-range, knocking down a combined 17-of-30 from long range. In Friday’s night’s tourney opener, the Bears were able to knock down  8-of-15 shots from long range in the opening round win, which was all part of a 57% shooting effort (30-of-53) in the opening night win.

David Thomas continued his outstanding play of late for the Bears, leading the way with 27 points on a 10-of-15 shooting effort from the field and was 5-for-6 from three-point land. He also went 2-for-4 from the free throw line. 

Thomas was one of five Bears in double figures, with second-team All-SoCon pick Jayln McCreary adding 14 points, with Alex Holt (11 pts), Robby Carmody (10 pts), and Jalen Cobb (10 pts) to round out the double figure scorers for Mercer.

The Bears and Bulldogs went back-and-forth in the opening 12 minutes, and with Mercer holding a 22-20 lead, the Bears created a little separation for the first time all night with a mini 7-0 spurt to build what was a 29-20 lead with a layup in the paint by McCreary to give Mercer the 29-20 lead.6:28 left in the opening half of play.

From there, Madison Durr would score five of the next seven in the game, as the Bulldogs pulled to within six, at 31-25, with 4:39 left in the opening frame. However, the three-and-a-half minutes later, an Alex Holt dunk allowed the Bears to take a 10-point, 37-27, lead with just 1:12 remaining in the half and the Bears and that would remain the score as the two teams headed to the locker room. 

In the second half, the Bulldogs would get to back into the game, cutting the Mercer lead to five with 10:34 remaining in the game following a bucket by Stephen Millora-Brown in the paint.

However, that would be the last real threat the Bulldogs would pose the remainder of the night, as Mercer scored nine-straight points to take a 63-49 lead and the Bulldogs weren’t able to cut the deficit under double digits until a little over a minute remaining when Elijah Morgan connected on a three-pointer to get the Bulldogs to within eight 1:26 remaining.

However, it was a case of too little too late, as the Bulldogs could get no closer than six points from that point forward, and the Bears went on to the eight-point triumph.

The Citadel finished the game having been led by four players in double figures in the game, as Madison Durr led the Bulldogs with 22 points and five rebounds, connecting on 8-of-16 shooting from the field, including a 6-of-13 from the charity stripe. 

Elijah Morgan chipped in with 18 points, while Quentin Millora-Brown and AJ Smith rounded out the double-figure scorers with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Millora-Brown added 12 rebounds to finish off the double-double performance 

The Bears have scored 80 or more points nine times this season, including in five of the past six games. Mercer is 8-1 in those games, with the lone loss being an 87-80 setback to Samford  

The Bulldogs finished the night connecting on 46.0% (29-of-63) from the field, which included a 29.4% (5-of-17) from beyond the arc.

In the second matchup, there was little drama that could be found between No. 7 East Tennessee State and the Bucs would end up winning by 32 points in the end, claiming what was a 98-66 win over VMI.

The Keydets were once again without their leading scorer and best player Brennan Watkins, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered as ETSU was a buzzsaw for much of the ecvening.

With its 98 points the most points against a Division I opponent this season, the Bucs improve to 17-15 overall and will now face UNC Greensboro in the quarterfinals of the tournament in a 2:30 p.m. contest. The Keydets conclude their season with a 4-28 overall mark . 

The Bucs improved to 3-1 all-time in the tournament against VMI, while also improving to 43-25 all-time in Southern Conference Tournament play. The 32-point win by the Bucs was its largest since beating The Citadel by 34 points in (89-55) in the 1992 SoCon Tournament, which ETSU won as the top overall seed. 

The Bucs and Spartans will be meeting for the fourth time in conference tournament play, as UNCG holds the slight 2-1 lead in postseason meetings. Two of the previous three meeting between the two have come in the championship game, with ETSU capturing a 79-74 win in the 2017 tournament, while the Spartans would return the favor the very next season, handing ETSU a 62-47 setback the very next season. 

The win marked ETSU’s first in Asheville in the Southern Conference Tournament since 2021, when the Bucs defeated Chattanooga, 63-53, in the quarterfinals before bowing out in the semifinals with a loss to eventual champion and top overall seed UNCG, dropping a 77-65 contest. 

In the win, the Bucs had 11 players score in the contest and shot a season-best 52% (32-of-62) from the field, while also finishing out the game with 18 assists. The Bucs also finished out the game by connecting on 11-of-20 from three-point land. 

Tyler Rice came off the bench to lead ETSU with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, while Jaden Seymour,  Jadyn Parker and Maki Johnson each added 12 points to the ETSU cause. Ebby Asamoah and Braden Illic finished with 11 points apiece to round out the blowout win.

Illic’s final points came on a three with the Bucs up 30 and as a result, caused for an icy handshake line and a small skirmish ensued with some pushing and shoving, however, no serious altercation ensued and the two teams retreated to their respective locker rooms inside the Harrah’s Cherokee Center.  If anything, the tensions on both sides are just an example of how the temperature is a little bit closer to boiling point this time of year. They don’t call it March Madness to just call it March Madness. 

ETSU was not crisp in the early stages of the game, but despite not really turning it on until the second half, the Bucs still managed to head to the half by scoring 42 points. 

The Bucs trailed 20-16 when DJ Nussbaum knocked down a jumper just right of the paint with 12 minutes left in the opening frame. However, a 26-11 run over the next 12 minutes saw the Bucs take complete control of the game and assume control of the game, taking a 42-31 lead into the half. 

ETSU’s dominance continued in the early stages of the second half, as the Bucs continued to add to its lead, increasing the advantage to 21 points when DJ Hughes found Seymour for an open three to make it 57-36 game with 15:53 remaining. 

VMI was able to cut the deficit to 15 once more, but ETSU responded to push the lead back to more than 20 on a Maki Johnson triple, at 65-44, with 11:29 left. The Bucs then cleared the bench when Gabe Sisk found Tyler Rice in the open floor for a layup, increasing the lead to 30 for the first time all night, at 82-52.

Four Keydets finished the night with four in double figures, with Taeshaud Jackson leading the way with a double-double, using a 16 points and 10 rebounds.