Cullowhee, N.C. – After playing their first two games of 2020 on the road, the Western Carolina men's basketball team returns to the friendly confines of the Ramsey Center on Saturday as the Catamounts welcome Mercer at 5 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader with the WCU women's basketball team.
Saturday is the last day for fans to purchase the Saturday SoCon pack for $30. The pack includes men's basketball home games against Mercer (Jan. 11), ETSU (Jan. 18), Wofford (Jan. 25), Furman (Feb. 8) and The Citadel (Feb. 25). Tickets to five WCU women's basketball games against ETSU (Jan. 11), Samford (Jan. 30), Mercer (Feb. 1), UNCG (Feb. 15), and Wofford (Feb. 25) are included with the purchase of the Saturday SoCon pack.
The Catamounts are 11-3 overall and 3-0 in Southern Conference play on the heels of a 97-85 win at VMI on Wednesday.
Carlos Dotson,
Mason Faulkner, and
Matt Halvorsen each tallied 20 points in the win as five Catamounts finished in double figures. Dotson and Faulkner both had double-doubles with 13 and 10 rebounds, respectively and Faulkner just missed his second triple-double with nine assists.
On Thursday, Faulkner was named to the Lou Henson Award mid-season watch list. He is one of five SoCon players to be named to the list which consists of 50 players from 22 mid-major conferences as well as independents.
Mercer is 6-10 and 0-3 after losing 70-61 at home to Chattanooga on Jan. 4. Djordje Dimitrijevic scored a game-high 22 points in the loss. Ethan Stair is fifth in the SoCon in scoring with an average of 16.8 points per game.
Saturday will be the first time that fans will be able to see the new videoboard in action at a men's game. The four-sided videoboard was installed on Wednesday and was first used on Thursday at the women's basketball game against Chattanooga.
The Bears enter Saturday's contest having won the last three games and five of the last six in the head-to-head series with the Catamounts. Mercer leads the all-time series 9-8.
WCU hits the road Wednesday, traveling to Furman at 7 p.m. in a battle for purple supremacy. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with audio on the Catamount Sports Network.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's basketball and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts) and Twitter (@catamounts, @wcu_mbb).
