Jan. 3, 2009

Box Score

Greenville, S.C. - Preseason All-Southern Conference guard Brandon Giles scored a season-high 25 points to lead a trio of Catamounts in double-digits as Western Carolina snapped a three-game seasonal losing skid with a 68-57 win Saturday afternoon over the Furman Paladins at Timmons Arena.

The win was WCU's first-ever at Timmons (1-6), a venue opened in 1998. It also gave the Catamounts a win in their conference opener for the third time in the last four seasons.

Giles, who scored 20 of his game-best 25 point in the second half, also pulled down a game-best eight rebounds in the win.

"Brandon Giles was huge in the second half," said WCU fourth-year head coach Larry Hunter. "That is the best he's played in a half all year long. That's the way he performed a year ago. It's nice to see that out of him. We've been missing that."

He added, "I thought we played really, really hard consistently for most of the game. Our guys were focused on doing a better job defensively. We still had some breakdowns, but we held them under 40 percent (shooting), we led in rebounding and we got to the free throw line offensively. We did some things you need to do to win ball games. But any road win in conference play is a big win."

Joining Giles in double figure scoring was classmate Jake Robinson, who added seven rebounds, and red-shirt freshman Harouna Mutombo, both with 11 points. Junior Brigham Waginger just missed double-figures for the fifth time in his last six games, chipping in nine points with four steals and a pair of assists.

Western Carolina (6-5, 1-0 SoCon) opened the game with back-to-back buckets in the paint by sophomore Richie Gordon and freshman Greg Avery to stake itself to a 4-0 lead inside the opening minute of play. However, Furman responded with six unanswered points to claim what would prove to be their largest lead of the contest, 6-4.

Both teams struggled finding the range from the floor through the opening 20 minutes as shooting percentages hung in the 20-to-30 percent range much of the first half with neither team able to build more than a four-point advantage.

Tied at 23 at the one-minute mark, Giles connected on a jumper in the lane with 26 seconds showing on the clock to give the Catamounts the lead for good as Western took a two-point, 25-23, advantage into intermission.

The back-and-forth struggle continued in the second half with WCU holding Furman off by with timely buckets and tenacious defensive intensity.

With Western leading by six, 50-44, at the 8:15 mark, Furman chopped the lead down to one at the 5:18 mark on a slam dunk by forward Bryson Barnes. Yet, Giles answered in transition, accepting a pass from Mutombo out of a scramble for a two-handed slam of his own to ignite a 12-to-3 run to push the advantage to double-digits, 64-54, to allow WCU to pull away. During the spurt, Giles scored 10 of the 12 points including a three-point play, with Waginger adding a steal and lay-up.

All told, Giles scored Western's final 12 points, including seven from the free throw line to ice the road win.

Furman (2-9, 0-2 SoCon) put two players in double figures led by 13 from Justin Dehm and 10 from Barnes as the Catamounts held the Paladins to a season-low 57 points.

Western Carolina returns home to host UNC Greensboro on Thursday, Jan. 8, with a special start time of 6:00 pm at the Ramsey Center.