Cullowhee, N.C. – Making his first collegiate start, freshman
Xavier Cork scored a career-high 16 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds to tie a career-high, but Western Carolina was unable to overcome a strong first half by ETSU in an 85-66 loss to the Buccaneers in front of a boisterous crowd at the Ramsey Center on Saturday night.
ETSU improves to 17-3 overall and 6-1 in the Southern Conference while Western Carolina drops to 12-5 and 4-2.
Cork finished in double figures for the first time in his career, surpassing his previous career-best of eight points against Mercer on Jan. 11. The Sulphur Springs, Texas native went 5-for-7 from the field, 6-for-11 at the free throw line and grabbed seven offensive rebounds. It is the most offensive rebounds in a game by a Catamount since
Carlos Dotson – who was sidelined by an injury on Saturday - grabbed eight offensive rebounds against Chattanooga on Jan. 3, 2019.
Mason Faulkner scored a team-best 18 points with six rebounds and five assists.
Matt Halvorsen finished in double figures for the fourth straight game with 11 points.
ETSU's Isaiah Tisdale posted a double-double with 26 points and 12 rebounds, 10 on the defensive glass. Tray Boyd and Lucas N'Guessan finished in double figures with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Bo Hodges was the final ETSU player in double figures with 14 points.
The Buccaneers opened the game on an 11-2 run capped by a Tisdale jumper at the 17:48 mark. WCU pulled within six, 11-5, after Faulkner hit two free throws with 16:31 remaining. The Buccaneers pushed their lead to 22-9 after two Hodges free throws prior to a 14-6 WCU run brought the hosts within six thanks to a Faulkner 3-pointer at the 7:19 mark. Tisdale gave the Bucs a game-high 21-point lead, 52-31 on a 3-pointer with seven seconds left in the half. Steger drained a 3-pointer between the 3-point line and half court just before time expired to send the Catamounts into halftime trailing 52-34. Of Tisdale's 26 points, 16 came in the first half.
The teams traded buckets to start the second half before a Tisdale 3-pointer just under two minutes into the frame put the Bucs up by 20, 56-36. The Catamounts answered with a 15-5 run to cut the deficit to 10, 61-51, after a
Travion McCray layup at the 9:01 mark. ETSU answered with seven straight points as the Catamounts got no closer than 13 points for the remainder of the night.
ETSU finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field including a 60.7 percent mark in the first half. The Catamounts shot 38 percent from the field but made 21 of 31 free throw attempts. The Buccaneers outscored the Catamounts 32-22 in the paint and outrebounded the hosts by a 35-33 margin.
WCU returns to the action on Wednesday, traveling to Mercer for a 7 p.m. tip-off.
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