NINETY SIX, S.C. – Charleston Southern men's golf held off a strong final round by Gardner-Webb to claim the top seed through three stroke play rounds at the Big South Championships at The Patriot at Grand Harbor course in Ninety Six, South Carolina. By virtue of the top spot, the Buccaneers will be the No. 1 seed in Saturday's match play to determine the conference champion and NCAA Regionals automatic berth recipient.

UNDER PAR, AGAIN
It was a second team score under par that propelled the Bucs to the top position in the team standings. They had begun the event Thursday with a 7-under 281 in the first round, equaling the lowest 18-hole total of the campaign to take the early lead. CSU stayed in contention through 36 holes, dropping back to second, but rebounded with a cumulative 3-under par 285 in Friday's final stroke play round.

Charleston Southern held off second-place Gardner-Webb, who posted the lowest team aggregate with a 6-under 282 to close the gap by three strokes.

TARVER EAGLES; FINISHES AS LOW BUCS INDIVIDUAL
Griffin Tarver continued to make a splash in his first collegiate campaign, sharing the lowest CSU score of the day with Ben Carroll but garnering the best overall finish of any Bucs individual with a cumulative 4-under 212 to finish in a tie for sixth.

Tarver recorded the program's second eagle of the tournament – after Carroll's on the same hole in the second round – on the par-5, 527-yard No. 8. He added two birdies, on the par-5, 560-yard No. 5 and par-4, 415-yard No. 10 on his scorecard along with 13 pars, including five-in-a-row on the back nine, from No. 11 through No. 16.

CARROLL'S RUN OF BIRDIES HITS FOUR
Ben Carroll worked his way back into the Top 10 overall individuals behind a 2-under 70 in the final round, equaling Tarver for the lowest in the blue and gold Friday. Carroll's final 18 holes was boosted by a string of four-consecutive birdies, starting on the par-3, 148-yard No. 7, continuing on No. 8 and the par-4, 445-yard No. 9 and ending with No. 10. He also had two others, on the par-4, 396-yard No. 1 and the par-5, 550-yard No. 18, while dropping in eight pars throughout the outing.

ETHAN = EVEN
Through Thursday's 36 holes, Ethan Willis was in 14th place by himself with an Even-par 144. He stayed on track Friday, posting an Even-par 72 to share 14th with High Point's Avery Price who fell back after a 1-over par 73.

Willis was 1-under par through the front nine, registering birdies on No. 1, No. 7 and No. 9 before tallying eight pars through his final-nine holes to count his 18-hole performance. He scored pars on No. 10 through No. 16, one of the longest spans for any Buccaneer on the day.

LOUDIN MAKES BIGGEST JUMP; COUNTS FRIDAY
No Charleston Southern player made a bigger climb up the leaderboard than Caleb Loudin, who jumped eight spots into a tie for 26th with a 1-over 73, his second-straight round counting on the team total. He managed two birdies, on the par-4, 363-yard No. 6 and again two holes later on No. 8, while also notching 14 pars on the day, including matching Willis with seven straight, from No. 12 through No. 18.

SMITH REMAINS IN TOP 10
The final player competing for CSU was Alan Smith, who slotted himself into a tie for 10th overall with Carroll and two others after tallying a 2-over 74 Friday. He had two birdies during his final round, again with identical scores on No. 1 and No. 18 as Carroll did, but without the four consecutive in the middle of the 18-hole round. Instead, he had a stretch of nine-straight pars, the longest of any CSU player on the day, starting at No. 5 and running through No. 13.

MOVING ON TO MATCH PLAY
Charleston Southern will compete in the match play portion of the league championship for the first time since it was implemented for the 2019 tournament and will square off against No. 4 seed Winthrop, who knocked off Radford in a sudden-death playoff. The top-four seeds have advanced to Saturday's action, which also includes No. 2 seed Gardner-Webb and No. 3 seed Campbell.

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN INDIVIDUALS
T6. Griffin Tarver, -4 (68-74-70—212)
T10. Ben Carroll, -1 (69-76-70—215)
T10. Alan Smith, -1 (70-71-74—215)
T14. Ethan Willis, E (74-70-72—216)
T26. Caleb Loudin, +8 (76-75-73—224)

TEAM STANDINGS
1. Charleston Southern, -8 (281-290-285—856)
2. Gardner-Webb, -5 (285-292-282—859)
3. Campbell, +1 (287-281-297—865)
T4. Winthrop, +9 (285-293-295—873)*
T4. Radford, +9 (294-293-286—873)
6. USC Upstate, +14 (293-290-295—878)
7. High Point, +15 (288-293-298—879)
8. Presbyterian, +19 (296-290-297—883)
9. Longwood, +34 (307-297-294—898)
10. North Carolina A&T, +58 (301-305-316—922)
* - advanced to match play following sudden death playoff