PREVIEW: Men’s Basketball crosses the Smokies to battle Tusculum

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – The Catawba College men's basketball team hits the road for a Wednesday night clash against the Tusculum Pioneers at 7:30 p.m.

Escaping the Wasps

- Emory & Henry nearly corralled its first South Atlantic Conference triumph on Saturday, but the Catawba Indians fended off the Wasps, 95-92, to cap the three-game homestand with a victory

- Nick Walker erupted for 33 points, a three-year Catawba high, for his sixth double-figure scoring performance of the year

- Ibra Athie also lit up the stat sheet with 18 points and 10 rebounds, making three double-doubles on the season and his second in a row

- The Wasps used a late 11-4 run to come one point away, but Montraivis White drilled two free throws with five seconds left and the defense muffled E&H's last-second effort to prevail

Close Games

- Each of Catawba's nine games have been decided by 10 or fewer points; the only other SAC program in this situation is Newberry

- The blue and white are 2-1 in one-possession finishes including Saturday's three-point win over Emory & Henry

- Across Catawba's nine contests, 71 lead changes have occurred for an average of 7.9 per game; the lone game with no lead changes was the wire-to-wire victory at UVA Wise, 82-78

Crunch-Time Free Throws

- Catawba leads its opposition in efficiency at the free throw line by a 73.0-66.3 percent margin that increases deeper into games

- After halftime, Catawba is shooting 75.0 percent (78-of-104) while its foes are posting a 64.7 percent (99-of-153) mark

- With five minutes left in regulation, the Catawba Indians' success rate drops to 67.4 percent (31-of-46) as the opponents' average sinks to an unsavory 57.1 percent (36-of-63)

- The blue and white have made at least of half of its free throw attempts in the last five minutes of each contest; the same cannot be said for Catawba's opponents as Lander (2-for-8), USC Aiken (1-for-7), and Anderson (4-for-9) were sub-.500

All-Time Series

- The Catawba Indians and Pioneers will match up for the 55th time in a series that the blue and white narrowly lead, 28-26

- Tusculum has a 14-10 edge when playing at home, prevailing in the last three contests held in Greeneville; Catawba is seeking its first win away from friendly confines since Nov. 30, 2019

- The previous meeting ended in a 78-66 victory for the Pioneers that lit a fire under Catawba, sparking a six-game winning streak and a 15-2 run to end the 2023-24 campaign

Scouting the Pioneers

- Tusculum comes into Wednesday with a 3-6 record, scoring all three wins in conference play

- Last time on the court, the Pioneers suffered a 20-point defeat to Lenoir-Rhyne for their second SAC loss after scaring nationally-ranked Carson-Newman in a 95-91 setback on Nov. 20

- TU defends well on the perimeter, forcing opponents to a league-low 28.5 percent from beyond the arc

- Bryce Jackson (16.9) and Malachi Hale (15.7) are averaging double-digit points and over six rebounds per game

- Hale is one of the region's most efficient shooters with a 53.6 percent clip from the field and a 45.8 percent success rate from deep

Follow Along

The contest will be broadcast live on FloCollege ($) with an audio-only stream on WSMG-FM. Live stats can be found on TusculumStats.com.