Feb. 25, 2006

Final Stats

Chattanooga, Tenn. - Western Carolina's Corey Muirhead scored 16 points, giving the senior an even 1,000 for his career. However, Chattanooga was able to pull away late and secure a 71-67 victory over the Catamounts Saturday night at McKenzie Arena. The Mocs (17-12, 8-6) finish second in the Southern Conference North Division, while Western (13-16, 7-7) finished third. Also, the Catamounts enter the 2006 SoCon Tournament as the seventh seed and will face 10th-seed UNC Greensboro in the first round on Thursday (Mar. 2) at the North Charleston Coliseum at approximately 6:30 pm (or 30 minutes after game one set to start at 3:30 pm).

The Catamounts stayed with the homestanding Mocs despite playing without 6-10, All-SoCon center David Berghoefer, who was serving a league-mandated, one-game suspension for being ejected in his previous game. His replacement in the starting lineup, senior Jared Outing, battled foul trouble and eventually fouled out with 9:28 to go.

Despite that, Western was trailing by just four (47-43). In fact, the Catamounts would score six straight from that point (two free throws by Muirhead and two layups from Stan Johnson). The lead bounced back and forth and Western trailed by two (54-52) after a Muirhead basket with 5:19 left.

Steve Cherry, who scored seven points, hadd six of those during a 6-0 run over the next two-minutes to put the Mocs up eight. Chattanooga would lead by as many at 10 points with 17 seconds left after a Charles Andrerson dunk, while Jerice Crouch and Casey Long combined to make 5-of-6 at the free throw line. Inside the final 10 seconds, Western scored seven points to provide the final four-point margin.

During the final seconds, Muirhead had a dunk and a layup, the second basket coming with three seconds left to become the 35th Catamount to score 1,000 career points.

In the first half, Western made 4-of-15 from 3-point range, including a trey by Kyle Greathouse at the buzzer, to trail by just three (28-25) at the break.

Antonio Russell led the Catamounts in scoring with a game-high 21 points, scoring 14 in the second half. Muirhead, who was 8-of-8 at the free throw line, had eight rebounds and added 14 of his 16 points in the final 20 minutes. Greathouse added 12 points and four assists.

For the Mocs, Anderson made 8-of-9 shots from the field to score 17 points, while adding eight rebounds. Crouch and Long contributed 16 and 10 points, respectively, while Ricky Hood brought down 10 rebounds and had five assists.