Feb. 16, 2002

Final Stats

Johnson City, Tenn. - ETSU's Dimeco Childress scored 42 points to lead the Buccaneers to a 91-77 win over Western Carolina in men's Southern Conference basketball action Saturday afternoon in the Mini Dome.

After a closely contested first 10 minutes of the game East Tennessee State (16-9, 9-5 SoCon) made the first move in the contest. Leading 17-14 at the 11:39 mark, the Bucs went on a 21-9 run that gave them a 38-23 advantage with 5:21 left in the first half. Fourteen of the points came off the hot hand of Childress, who canned three treys in the run. ETSU then held its lead the rest of the first half and took a 45-31 lead into the locker room.

Turnovers plagued the Catamounts in the first half, as they coughed it up 15 times, leading to 19 points for the Bucs.

Western Carolina (11-14, 5-9 SoCon) could not make much of a dent in the ETSU lead in the second half until late in the game. With the Bucs holding a 70-55 lead with 6:22 left, WCU's Kevin Martin got hot. He scored nine points of a 14-4 Catamount run, hitting a pair of 3-pointers. When Martin hit a jumper with 2:20 to play, Western found itself down by only five points at 74-69.

That would prove to be as close as the Cats would get, however, as ETSU hit 11 straight free throws in the final two minutes and Western missed on six straight shots, enabling the Bucs to pull away.

East Tennessee State shot 46 percent to Western's 42 percent. It was a turnover filled game, with Western turning it over 31 times and the Bucs 24 more. The Catamounts held a slim edge on the boards, 39-38.

Childress also set school record for field goal attempts in a game with 27 en route to his 42 points. He finished his day shooting 16-of-27, including going 5-of-11 from behind the 3-point line.

In addition to Childress, Zakee Wadood had 13 points and nine rebounds, while Ryan Lawson and Tiras Wade added 11 points each. Wade also had eight assists.

Western Carolina was led by Martin's 23 points. Cory Largent added 12 points and seven rebounds, with Kelvin Wylie scoring 11 points.

Western Carolina will play at Wofford on Monday (Feb. 18) at 7:00 pm, before closing the regular season at Chattanoga on Saturday (Feb. 23).