JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 27, 2008) - Senior forward Kenyona Swader (Smyrna) scored a game high 19 points, leading a group of Buccaneers that posted double figures as the ETSU men's basketball team grounded the North Florida Ospreys 92-68 Sunday afternoon in Atlantic Sun Conference action at Memorial Center.

            A crowd of 3,562 witnessed the Bucs improve to 11-9 overall, 5-2 in A-Sun play, keeping pace just one game behind Jacksonville for first place in the regular season standings. Meanwhile, a nightmarish season continued for UNF, as the Ospreys dropped to 1-18, 0-7.

            "You never know about a game, but we were hopeful to play a lot of guys and we got to do that today," said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow, whose team has won three of its last four games and is now 7-1 inside Memorial Center this season. "The big thing right now is that our two shooters Kenyona and Travis (Strong) are really playing with a lot of confidence right now. Offensively, that means things are looking good, and five players in double figures is really encouraging. We still have things to work on, but this is another good win at home."

            While Swader led the way with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor - including a 3-of-5 showing from 3-point range - the Bucs also got 14 points and 11 rebounds from junior forward Kevin Tiggs (Flint, Mich.), who picked up his second double-double of the season. Along with Swader and Tiggs, senior guard Travis Strong (Memphis) added 18 points, while senior forward Andrew Reed (Port Richey, Fla.) and junior guard Courtney Pigram (Memphis) pitched in 12 points apiece.

            In the first half, UNF had the game tied at 7-7, but from there the Bucs went on a 25-9 offensive run to build a 16-point lead at 32-16 with just over five minutes left before the intermission. The Ospreys got to within 13 with 2:47 left, but ultimately a 3-pointer from senior post Reed and four straight from Pigram made it 48-32 at the break.

            The Bucs opened the second half where they had left off in the first half, going on a 15-7 run to increase their advantage to 24 points at 63-39. ETSU kept the pressure on with a bevy of 3-pointers to ultimately lead by as many as 30 with just over six minutes remaining in the contest.

            In all, the Bucs out-rebounded the Ospreys 46-35, while forcing UNF into 18 turnovers on eight steals. In addition, ETSU hit on 80 percent of its foul shots (28-of-35) and shot 43 percent from the field.

            North Florida got a team high 17 points from Stan Januska, while Tom Hammonds and Kyle Groothuis netted 14 and 13 points, respectively.

            The Bucs will return to action at home Friday night against Mercer, with game time set for 7:30 p.m. The game will air on regional cable thanks to CSS, while fans unable to access the cable broadcast can - as always - watch the Bucs live via video streaming at ASun.TV.

            For more on ETSU men's basketball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball link.