PULASKI, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Southern men's basketball closed out their regular season in an 87-68 victory over Bethel on senior day today.

Adarion Hudson and Kendall Wright led all scorers with 18 points apiece. Hudson almost completed a double-double with nine assists. Kavion Hancock added 16 points, and Brady Brown added 10 points and nine boards.

Both teams would pass the lead back and forth in the early going. After the under-six media time-out, UTS would begin to pull away piecing together a 7-0 with three minutes left. The Firehawks would lead 46-40 at the break.

The second half began with both teams trading buckets, and Bethel would close the gap down to 49-47 with 15 minutes left in the game. The Firehawks would begin to strangle the BU offense and pull away for the senior day win.

UTS would shoot 33 of 61 for 54% from the field. There would be nine lead changes and four ties.

SENIOR DAY

Seniors Brady Brown, Cam Welch, and Kavion Hancock were honored today by the team for their accomplishments in their careers at UTS.

STALKING 1,000

Brady Brown entered today's game with 984 career points at UTS. After his 10 tallies today, Brown needs just six points to become the fifth member of the 1,000-point club at UTS.

MSC CHAMPIONSHIP

Mid-South Conference officials released the 2023 MSC Men's Basketball Tournament bracket Saturday following the conclusion of the conference's regular season.

The 2023 tournament features opening-round games at on-campus sites with the winners of those games joining the top-four seeds in Bowling Green for the remainder of the tournament.

Opening-round games are slated for Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the higher-seeded team. The quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25 with the semifinals slated for Sunday, Feb. 26. The championship game is Monday, Feb. 27. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals are all played at Bowling Green Arena.

Georgetown (Ky.) is the tournament's top seed after winning the regular season with an 18-4 conference record. As the MSC's regular-season champion, the Tigers earn one of the conference's two automatic bids into the NAIA National Tournament in March.

Freed-Hardeman (16-6 in the MSC) is the second seed in the tournament while Thomas More (Ky.) (15-7) and Shawnee State (Ohio) (13-9) are the third and fourth seeds, respectively.

Fifth-seeded Pikeville (Ky.) (13-9) hosts No. 12-seed Wilberforce (Ohio) (2-20) in the first of four opening-round games while sixth-seeded Tennessee Southern (13-9) hosts No. 11-seed Lindsey Wilson (6-16).

Shawnee State earned the higher seed over Pikeville and Tennessee Southern based on the conference's second tiebreaker -- the three teams split during the regular season. Tennessee Southern was 0-2 against Georgetown while Pikeville and Shawnee State were both 1-1. Continuing with the tiebreaker, both Shawnee and Pikeville were 1-1 against Freed-Hardeman and Thomas More. Shawnee State had a victory over Cumberlands while Pikeville suffered two losses to the Patriots. Using the same tiebreaker, Pikeville earned the five seed due to having the one win over Georgetown.

No. 7-seed Cumberlands (Ky.) (11-11) hosts No. 10-seed Campbellsville (Ky.) (6-16) while No. 8-seed Bethel (Tenn.) (10-12) hosts ninth-seeded Cumberland (Tenn.) (9-13).

The four opening-round winners advance to the next Saturday's quarterfinals.

The tournament champion receives one of the conference's two automatic bids into the NAIA National Tournament. If Georgetown wins the tournament, the tournament's runner-up receives the second automatic bid.

NEXT UP

The Firehawks will host their MSC opening round matchup with the 11th-seed Lindsey Wilson.  The matchup will take place early next week and will be announced in the upcoming days.

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