Matt Halvorsen Gets One More Chance to Beat His Hometown Team When Western Carolina Hosts ETSU

The Kingsport native is one of the Southern Conference’s best players. He’s never been able to beat East Tennessee State, however. Wednesday’s 4 pm tip-off presents one last chance for Western Carolina to beat the Bucs.

Marky Billson

Many will say East Tennessee State’s convincing 92–81 men’s basketball victory against Virginia Military Institute on Monday night was because of the return of LeDarrius Brewer.

No, one can’t scoff at a the return of a team’s leading scorer posting 23 points up for the cause, leading a charge of a school-record 16 successful 3-point baskets with five such field goals of his own.

A side note to Wednesday’s game is Brewer, who transferred to ETSU from Southeast Missouri State, is three points shy of 1,000 for his college career.

But it wasn’t so much the points as the depth he provided the Bucs (7–5, 3–1) in their victory.

VMI head coach Earl does not have a deep team. He has his five starters and that’s about it.

And with Brewer back, ETSU head coach Jason Shay used his bench to beat the 7–7 Keydets, who had erased an initial 9–0 deficit on Monday and had forged a 46–46 tie early in the second half.