Nov. 29, 2009

Box Score

Boiling Springs, N.C. - Brandon Giles sparked the Catamount offense with a game-high 24 points as Western Carolina put three players in double figures to race past Gardner-Webb, 75-59, Saturday night in non-conference play at the Paul Porter Arena.

Giles made four of WCU's seven 3-pointers in the win, scoring his season-high to pace the squad. The Auburndale, Fla., senior added six rebounds and a game-high six steals. He was joined in double figures by classmates Brigham Waginger with 12 and Jake Robinson with 11 points off the bench in the win.

Robinson boarded a game-high eight as the Catamounts turned a 25-to-14 rebounding deficit at halftime into a 22-to-15 edge in the second. Mike Williams added nine points and five steals

"Brandon Giles had a great ball game tonight. He was really huge for us, and our depth was a big factor," said Western Carolina head coach Larry Hunter during post-game comments on the Catamount Sports Network. "We talked about it at halftime about how we are getting everyone's best shot; that comes with expectations. (Gardner-Webb) was winning all of the loose ball and hustle stats in the first half. I felt that we got after it in the second half."

Saturday night's win snaps WCU's three-game slide in the overall series and is the Catamounts' first in Boiling Springs since 1970. Western also matched its best start to a season since the 1990-91 Catamounts which also went 5-1 through its first six contests.

Western Carolina - which won its fourth-straight overall and first road contest of the season - took an early five-point, 7-2, lead before the Runnin' Bulldogs rattled off a 13-to-2 run to claim a six-point advantage, 15-9. The Catamounts were able to stem the turn of momentum, tying the game at 17 on a Waginger 3-pointer, and eventually took the lead for what proved to be for good on a Giles triple with two and a half minutes remaining before the break.

WCU scored the final six points of the opening 20 minutes to stake itself to a six-point, 29-23, lead at halftime.

In the second half, Giles scored seven of WCU's first nine points, making one of two free throws to push Catamount lead to double-digits at 10 with 16:34 showing on the Porter Arena clock. The lead would not dip into single digits the remainder of the game though Gardner-Webb (3-2) managed to close to within 11 points on two occasions including the latter at 55-44.

But the Catamounts responded with an 8-0 spurt, capped by a jumper by Blake Gallagher, who played 10 critical minutes off the bench as three post players were in foul trouble, to go ahead by 19, 63-44. WCU would work the margin to 20 twice inside the game's final four minutes en route to the 16-point victory.

All told, the Catamounts converted 30 Gardner-Webb turnovers into 31 points, and despite being out-rebounded 40-to-36, Western Carolina recorded 23 second chance points to just 10 by the Bulldogs.

Gardner-Webb also had a trio of players reach double digits as Auryn MacMillan who scored 12 points in just 18 minutes of action, missing a bulk of the second half due to foul trouble. Grayson Flittner, who averaged 16 points per game in the three previous meetings with the Catamounts including 31 in Cullowhee a year ago, was held to 11 points with three, 3-pointers, while C.J. Hailey added 10 points in the losing effort.

Western Carolina returns to action on Wednesday night in the second half of a Catamount basketball twin bill. The women's squad hosts mountain-rival, UNC Asheville, at 5:00 pm with the men opening Southern Conference play by entertaining Wofford at 7:30 pm. The Terriers (4-3) recorded an impressive, 60-57, win over Georgia and battled Pittsburgh to a three-point game in the season opener.