East Tennessee State defeats Wofford for Southern Conference title

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Isaiah Tisdale said he had a dream East Tennessee State was going to win the Southern Conference Tournament.

That dream was realized Monday night.

Tisdale scored 24 points and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player as top-seeded ETSU defeated upset-minded Wofford, 72-58, to win the SoCon Tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“You have to dream it to believe it,” Tisdale said with a wide smile.

Tray Boyd added 11 points for the Bucs, who become only the fourth team in conference history to win 30 games.

“Thirty wins, I’m not sure where we stand in East Tennessee State history, but if there is a Mount Rushmore, this team is on it,” said ETSU coach Steve Forbes.

Seventh-seeded Wofford (19-16) was looking to become the first SoCon team since Clemson in 1939 to win four games to capture the conference tournament title after beating The Citadel, Furman and Chattanooga to reach the finals. The Terriers entered the tournament having lost their final seven regular season games but found some magic in Asheville with an impressive tournament run.

But Wofford seemed to wear down in the second half, falling behind by 15 when Jeromy Rodriguez scored an a spinning drive with four minutes remaining.

“We ran out of gas late,” Wofford coach Jay McAuley said. “Our legs started to look a little tired, and you could see it in our shots.”

Said Wofford point guard Storm Murphy: “The shots weren’t falling in the second half, but I think ETSU had something to do with that.”

Chevez Goodwin had 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting from the field to lead Wofford. He said “a lot of people painted us as Cinderellas,” but that the Terriers expected to come in and win the tournament and defend their title.

ETSU shot 9 of 21 from 3-point range; Wofford was just 6 of 25.