CULLOWHEE, N.C. – The Western Carolina men's basketball team opens its quest for a Southern Conference crown on Friday at 5:30 p.m. as the ninth-seeded Catamounts face No. 8 seed The Citadel in the first round of the 2021 Ingles Southern Conference Tournament presented by General Shale Brick at the Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville.
The Catamounts and Bulldogs meet in the opening game of the tournament with the winner advancing to play top seed and regular-season champion UNCG on Saturday at Noon in the first of four quarterfinals. The victor of Saturday's first quarterfinal meets the winner of #4 Chattanooga and #5 ETSU in the semifinals on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Friday's game and all four of Saturday's quarterfinal contests will be streamed on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) as well as televised on select Nexstar affiliates including WYCW in the Asheville/Greenville/Spartanburg television market. Friday's game will air on the Catamount Sports Network with pregame coverage beginning at 5 p.m.
Both of Sunday's semifinal games will be broadcast on ESPNU with Monday's championship game on ESPN at 7 p.m.
WCU finished with an 11-15 overall record and a 4-13 league mark after closing out the regular season with back-to-back victories including an 85-61 victory over Mercer last Saturday on Senior Day in the Ramsey Center. Five Catamounts finished in double figures led by junior
Cory Hightower with 16 points. Sophomore
Xavier Cork logged his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Redshirt senior
Mason Faulkner was named to the All-SoCon third-team on Wednesday. The Glasgow, Ky., native averaged a team-best 16.3 points per game, ninth-most in the league. Faulkner finished in double figures in 18 games this season with seven games above the 20-point threshold. He earned all-conference laurels for the second straight year after being selected as a first-team member on the coaches team and a second-team media member in 2019-20.
The Citadel earned the eighth seed after going 12-11 overall and 5-11 in league games. The Bulldogs did not play last weekend after their regular-season finale against Samford was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols in the Samford program. Redshirt junior Hayden Brown earned first-team All-Conference honors after he led the league in scoring (19.0 points per game) and rebounding (10.5 rebounds per game). He tallied a league-best 12 double-doubles and finished in double figures in all but two games. Sharpshooting senior Kaiden Rice claimed a spot on the All-SoCon third-team. Rice leads the nation in 3-pointers made per game at 3.96 and is second nationally with 91 made treys.
The teams have met in the conference tournament five previous times with WCU holding a 3-2 edge. All but one meeting has occurred in the first round, the latest resulting in a 78-72 win for The Citadel in the first round of the 2017 tournament. Both teams protected their home courts during the regular season with the Catamounts taking a thrilling 76-75 win in Cullowhee on Feb. 1 and the Bulldogs using two big second half runs for a 74-63 win on Feb. 6.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount basketball and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountMBB).
