JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Freshman Travion McCray converted a Matt Halvorsen offensive rebound into a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12 seconds remaining in Saturday afternoon's regular season finale at league-leading ETSU. However, on the ensuing possession, Buccaneer guard Patrick Good hit his seventh 3-pointer of the game with seven seconds showing which proved to be the game-winning basket as the Bucs rallied past Western Carolina 68-67 inside a sold-out Freedom Hall.
 
Already owning the top seed in next week's tournament, ETSU concludes the regular season at 27-4 and 16-2 in the Southern Conference to clinch the regular-season championship. WCU finished the 2019-20 season at 18-11 and 10-8.
 
Senior Carlos Dotson paced the Catamounts with 18 points and nine rebounds. McCray scored a career-high 15 points and tied a career-high with six rebounds. Onno Steger tallied 15 points to finish in double figures for the seventh straight game.
 
Good led ETSU with 26 points with 24 coming in the second half. Tray Boyd finished with 13 points followed by Bo Hodges with 10 points.
 
After a scoreless opening stretch of almost two minutes, Hodges sparked an 8-0 ETSU run with his layup at the 18:04 mark. The Catamounts cut the deficit to five, 8-3, after a Harris layup at the 15:17 mark before ETSU tallied six straight points for a 14-3 lead on a Hodges bucket at the 13-minute mark. Following a pair of Hodges free throws that put the hosts ahead 20-8 just past the midway point of the period, WCU went on a 13-2 run capped by a pair of Steger free throws to pull within one, 22-21, with 4:16 left. Faulkner sank a pair of free throws to give WCU its first lead of the game, 25-24, at the 2:56 mark. Lucas N'Guessan put ETSU back on top 26-25 on the next Buccaneer possession before the Catamounts closed the half on a 7-0 run for a 32-26 halftime lead.
 
A Daivien Williamson layup brought ETSU within one, 33-32, at the 17:07 mark of the second half. The Catamounts answered with an 11-0 run for a 43-32 advantage following a McCray 3-pointer with 14:39 to play. The 11-point lead was the largest of the game for the Catamounts. Tisdale hit a 3-pointer on the next ETSU possession to bring the hosts within eight as the WCU lead oscillated between eight and 11 points for nearly the next seven minutes until Good hit a 3-pointer with just under eight minutes remaining. Free throws by Halvorsen and Dotson pushed the Catamount lead back to 10 points, 51-41, with over seven minutes to play. ETSU pushed back, pulling within five points, 51-46, on a Good triple at the 6:42 mark before WCU pushed the lead back to double digits, 57-47, with 4:30 to play.
 
Good's 3-pointer at the 4:16 mark sparked a 10-5 ETSU run over the next two minutes as the Bucs pulled within five, 62-57, after a pair of free throws. Dotson hit two free throws to push the lead back to seven points, 64-57, with just under two minutes left only to see consecutive Good 3-pointers and a Hodges layup put the hosts back on top, 65-64, with 27 seconds left. On the next WCU possession, Steger missed a 3-pointer but McCray grabbed the offensive rebound and sank a 3-pointer to put the Catamounts ahead 67-65 with 12 seconds left. Good scored the game-winning basket for a one-point ETSU lead as McCray's final attempt with two seconds left was blocked by Isaiah Tisdale and the Bucs jumped on the rebound.
 
The Catamounts went 21-for-40 (52.5 percent) from the field and 8-for-19 (42.1 percent) behind the arc. WCU made 17 of 27 (63.0 percent) of their free throw attempts. ETSU went 24-for-64 (37.5 percent) from the field, 10-for-32 (31.3 percent) on 3-point attempts and 10-for-13 (76,9 percent) at the free throw line. WCU outrebounded ETSU 37-30.
 
WCU earned the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 Mercer (17-14, 11-7 SoCon) in the quarterfinal round of the 2020 Ingles Southern Conference Tournament presented by General Shale next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The tournament is held at the newly renamed Harrah's Cherokee Center. The teams split their regular-season meetings this year, with the Catamounts taking a 79-71 win on Jan. 11 and the Bears evening the season series with an 83-79 win 11 days later.
 
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