JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – As 2020 comes to a close, the CIU men's basketball team is squeezing a few more games into the year. The Rams traveled to East Tennessee State University Thursday evening to play an NCAA Division I exhibition contest against the Buccaneers. It was the first meeting between the Buccaneers and Rams, but it was the third exhibition game for CIU against a team out of the Southern Conference as the Rams already played Mercer and The Citadel earlier this year. While a large margin ultimately separated CIU and ETSU the Rams made several scoring runs throughout the evening, finally falling 96-54.

CIU fell behind early 13-0 but would go on a 12-8 run to cut the score to 21-12 with 13:23 remaining in the half. The Buccaneers then extended their lead throughout the 10:00 minutes leading up to halftime, taking a 54-28 advantage into the break. ETSU opened up a 60-28 lead early in the second half. However, CIU grabbed the momentum going on a 14-4 run, capped off by a thunderous two-hand slam from DiAnthony Heathcock. The Rams trailed 64-42 with 14:00 left in the contest but could not get any closer, yielding to ETSU a 96-54 victory.

CIU's DiAnthony Heathcock has already proven he can hold his own with NCAA Division opponents this season and did so again tonight. The freshman had eight points and four rebounds, going 4-6 from the field. Skyler McKinney was impactful for CIU as he was 4-5 from the field, scoring nine points. Freshman Julio Rodriguez did his part for the Rams, shooting a perfect 2-2 from deep while recording eight points. The Ram's leading scorer was Corey Benton, who had 11 points going 3-3 from the charity stripe.

"It was good to see our guys playing with some confidence tonight and I am grateful to Coach Shay for allowing us to play his team on such short notice," said CIU Head Coach Tony Stockman, speaking on the evening's contest.

CIU will travel across state lines tomorrow to play Appalachian State University in another NCAA Division I exhibition at 4 p.m. in Boone, N.C. The game will air on ESPN+.