Feb 15, 2003

Box Score

LEXINGTON, Va. - Junior guard Emre Atsur nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner with 8.9 seconds lift to Western Carolina past VMI, 61-58, Saturday afternoon before at Cameron Hall and a regional Fox Sports Net South television audience.

The Catamounts took the season series from the Keydets and moved to 8-15, 5-7 SoCon, on the year while the Keydets slipped to 6-17, 1-11.

The Keydets trailed, 58-53, following a Kevin Martin 3-pointer with 1:34 left, but rallied with five straight points on a Radee Skipworth dunk and a Lavar Joseph 3-pointer with 41 seconds left to tie the game at 58-58. Western Carolina called timeout with 21 seconds left to set up its final play. Martin got the ball and found Atsur in the left corner. Atsur calmly buried a 19-footer for his fourth trey in six attempts on the afternoon.

Martin, who ended up with five assists, led all scorers with 20 points while Atsur added 17 points. Junior forward Alex Osipovitch scored 10 points for the Catamounts.

Junior forward Skipworth notched his second double-double of the season with 15 points and season-high 14 rebounds and led the Keydets in scoring for the 14th time in the last 15 games. Sophomore center Tim Allmond scored 12 points and hit all six shots from the floor.

VMI missed opportunities to take the lead down the stretch when senior forward Zach Batte missed a pair of free throws with the score tied 53-53 with 2:40 left in regulation. WCU junior Rans Brempong, who had three blocked shots stuffed an Easu Eatman layup attempt at the 2:00 mark with the Catamounts protecting a 55-53 lead. It was Brempong's 217th career block, which moved him to third place on the Southern Conference all-time shot blocking list.

The Keydets missed a chance to tie the game on its last possession when guard Richard Little's desparation 3-pointer from 26 feet misfired at the top of the backboard as time expired.

VMI shot 48.1% from the game (26-54) but connected on just two of 13 from 3-point range (15.4%) and four of 10 from the line (40.0%). The Catamounts hit 42% from the field (21-50) and drained a season-high 11 of 23 attempts (47.8%) from 3-point range.

The Catamounts capitalized on five VMI turnovers in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the game and built a 16-6 lead at the 13:36 mark of the first half. The lead reached as much as 11 points (21-10) when Martin converted a layup with 11:40 left, but VMI countered with a 7-0 run keyed by layups by Skipworth and Allmond, and a 3-pointer by Ben Rand.

The Catamounts led 30-27 at the break, but VMI took its first lead since the opening minute of the game when Batte hit a layup to put the Keydets ahead, 31-30, at 18:50. WCU answered with a 10-2 run to take a 40-33 lead with 15:04 left, but the Catamounts went scoreless for nearly five minutes before Osipovitch hit a jumper with 10:08 remaining. The second half saw seven lead changes and two ties before Atsur's game winner.

Western Carolina will wrap up its current three-game road trip with a game at the College of Charleston. The game is set to begin at 7:00 pm and will televised on CSS-TV, which is aired on cable systems owned by Charter/Comcast.