March 5, 2003

Final Stats

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.-Western Carolina trimmed an 18-point deficit with six minuted left in the game to just six with two minutes to go, but an intentional foul called on the Catamounts allowed Georgia Southern to score four points on one possession and pull out an 89-81 victory in the first round of the Southern Conference Championship at the North Charleston Coliseum. The loss ends the season for Western, while Georgia Southern (16-12) moves on to face the College of Charleston in the quarterfinals.

Julius Jenkins scored 20 points to lead five Georgia Southern players in double figures. However, Jenkins, who scored 13 points in the first half to give GSU a 33-21 lead a the break, only made two field goals and three free throws in scoring seven second half points. Jenkins added seven assists and five rebounds, while Kordel Gibson had 15 points and Bennett 14 for the Eagles.

Kevin Martin, the conference's leading scorer this season, scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half as Western Carolina cut an 18-point deficit to 72-66 with 2:19 left.

But Western Carolina's Jared Outing was called for an intentional foul on the next possession after the Eagles' Frank Bennett went down hard to the floor. Bennett made both foul shots and, with Georgia Southern retaining the ball, Jenkins found Prentice Mobley for a nice inside basket as the Eagles regained control.

Martin got most of his points after the game looked out of reach with Georgia Southern comfortably in front 66-48. But the Catamount sophomore scored 13 of his team's next 18 points to tighten things up.

Western also got a lift scoring from junior Emre Atsur, who scored 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Freshman L.T. Lockett also helped in WCU's comeback attempt, scoring nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 at the line in just three minutes of play.

Kori Hatcher, Western's lone senior, ended his WCU career with nine points and three assists. He handed out a career-best 106 assists for the season and finishes his career ninth on the WCU all-time list with 360. The Valdosta, Ga., native additionally ended the season with a career-best 3-point field goal percentage of .415 (49-of-118), which ranks sixth on the school's single season top 10.

Martin wraps up his sophomore season with 1,165 career points to rank 22nd on the WCU all-time list. He additionally set a WCU single-seaon record by making 88.3 percent of his free throws (174-of-197), bettering the previous mark of Paul Litz (.879). Martin's 174 free throws made comes in a 10th on the WCU single-season list.

The Catamounts finish the season with a 9-19 record (6-10 in the SoCon).