Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina saw two players eclipse career-scoring milestones on Saturday evening as the Catamounts extended their seasonal winning streak to five straight games with their ninth-consecutive home victory on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center with a 90-62 victory over Division II King University to conclude the nonconference portion of the schedule.
 
Seniors Vonterius Woolbright and Tre Jackson both crested the 20-point mark in the team's 11th out-of-conference victory to eclipse the 1,000-career point plateau as NCAA Division I student-athletes in the winning effort. Woolbright secured his NCAA-leading 10th double-double of the season with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds while classmate Tre Jackson scored 20 points including four 3-pointers and a trio of thefts on his stat line.
 
Woolbright needed just seven points to hit the career milestone which he did at the 13:34 mark of the first half on a jumper in the lane. The Albany, Ga., product has scored all 1,016 of his D-I points in the Purple & Gold over the past three years. Jackson transferred to WCU from Iowa State with 317 points over three seasons playing for the Cyclones and was a mere 19 points shy entering Saturday. On the cusp with 999 points late in the going, Jackson drained a jumper just outside the painted lane at the 2:09 mark of the second half to surpass 1,000.
 
Sophomore DJ Campbell chipped in 16 points as the third Catamount to reach double figures, finishing 8-of-11 from the floor. Bernard Pelote finished with seven points while Russell Jones Jr. and Colin Granger both finished with six. Granger boarded a career-high seven misses while Pelote had six rebounds with Jones Jr. matching Jackson with three steals. All nine Catamounts that recorded minutes registered points in the victory.
 
Defensively, Charles Lampten and Corneilous Williams recorded several blocked shots with Granger and Pelote also joining the block party for WCU.
 
King, which played the game as an exhibition and does not count it against its seasonal record, put a pair of players in double figures and had two just miss double-doubles. Freshman Mikhail Pocknett finished with a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds including five on the offensive end, while Kenny Turner finished with nine points and a team-best 13 rebounds, six on offense. Seth Cullen gave the Tornado a second double-digit scorer with 14 points including three 3-pointers.
 
Western Carolina (11-2) weathered an early storm by the King Tornado. After jumping out to a 4-0 advantage, King used a 13-to-4 run to grab a five-point lead, 13-8, five minutes into the first half. The game then saw two ties at 14-all and 21-21 midway through the opening 20 minutes before WCU managed to take control. The home squad rattled off 19 straight points to break the tie at 21 and give the Catamounts a half-high 19-point lead, 40-21.
 
King was able to whittle the mark back down to 12 before intermission as the Catamounts carried a 43-31 lead into the halftime locker room. The 12-point deficit proved to be as close as the Tornado would get for the remainder of the day.
 
All told, WCU outscored King 22-to-10 over the final nine and a half minutes of the opening frame.
 
Russell Jones Jr. sank his second of two made 3-pointers 30 seconds into the second half to spark an 8-0 burst out of the break that handed WCU its first 20-point cushion, 51-31. King closed back to within 15 at 51-36 three minutes in but would get no closer. A Jackson 3-pointer pushed the margin back above 20 at 62-41 with the lead hitting a game-high 28 points on four occasions including the final tally, 90-62.
 
WCU was outrebounded for just the fifth time this season as King hit the glass for the one board, 46-45, edge, but posted an impressive 21 offensive rebounds that led to 15 second-chance points. The Catamounts scored just over half of their points in the paint, finishing with 46 of the team's 90 in the three-second lane. WCU also converted 16 King turnovers into 24 points while coughing it up just 10 times which led to just a dozen points off turnovers.
 
Finishing the nonconference portion of its schedule with 11 victories and off to the program's best start since the 2009-10 team opened the year at 12-2, Western Carolina now turns its attention to Southern Conference play that opens in the New Year. The Catamounts play three of their first four league games away from home beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 3, with a 7 p.m. date with The Citadel (8-5) at McAlister Field House in Charleston, S.C.
 
Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live audio from the Catamount Sports Network and live stats available online at CatamountSports.com. The CSN airtime is 6:30 p.m. and can be heard online as well as locally on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" in Sylva (www.wrgc.com).
 
WCU's next home game is Saturday, Jan. 6, as the Catamounts host Wofford with a 4 p.m. tip-off on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center. Tickets are available online at www.CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets.
 
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