Cullowhee, N.C. – Riding a season-long tying six-game winning streak, Western Carolina returns to the friendly confines of Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center on Saturday afternoon for its Southern Conference home-opener by hosting the Wofford Terriers in men's basketball action. Tip-off against its second-straight Palmetto State foe is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Both teams enter Saturday's showdown with league-opening victories on Wednesday night. The Catamounts built a pair of 20-point second-half advantages before holding off The Citadel 80-71 in Charleston, while Wofford overcame a double-digit first-half deficit and was pushed to overtime inside the final minute of regulation by VMI. The Terriers sank the game-winning bucket with four seconds showing in the overtime session to begin league play with a win.
Saturday's game will be
broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) with
live audio from the Catamount Sports Network and
live stats available at CatamountSports.com. Fans can also listen to the game locally on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" in Sylva (wrgc.com). Tickets for Saturday's game are available online by visiting
www.CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets.
Western Carolina's 1,000-point scoring duo was at it again on Wednesday as
Tre Jackson hit six 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 24 points and
Vonterius Woolbright collected his NCAA-leading 11th double-double with 22 points and 15 rebounds in the squad's nine-point,
80-71, league-opening victory at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
Woolbright has strung together six-straight double-doubles as he continues to pace the SoCon at 21.3 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. He has scored 20 or more points in three of his last four games including two straight. A four-time SoCon Player of the Week, Woolbright collected his second monthly award earlier on Friday,
named the SoCon Men's Basketball Player of the Month for December as he has swept the two monthly awards to date in addition to his four player of the week plaudits.
Like his classmate, Jackson is likewise riding back-to-back 20-point efforts and has 14 made 3-pointers over his last three games to move into second in the SoCon with 3.1 made 3-pointers per game. Behind Woolbright and Jackson, who ranks 17th in the SoCon at 13.3 points per game, WCU has four combined double-digit scorers ranked among the SoCon's Top 25 in scoring. Sophomore
DJ Campbell ranks 19th in the league with a 12.1 point per game average with
Russell Jones Jr. rounding out the Top 25 with an 11.2-point average.
WCU's current six-game winning streak matches its longest of the year and best under third-year head coach Justin Gray. The Catamounts also look for a 10th-straight home victory, entering Saturday winners of nine consecutive dating back to last season and boasting a 6-0 mark in Cullowhee this year.
Wofford enters the weekend at 8-6 overall with consecutive wins over non-Division I Southern Wesleyan and Wednesday's overtime victory over VMI to start league play. The Terriers endured a five-game losing skid as a part of opening the season at 2-5 overall but have won six of their last seven games including a pair of overtime triumphs. Wofford ranks among the SoCon leaders in team scoring, third with an average of 80.6 points per game but is ninth as opponents average 76.6 points against.
Wofford's top five scorers each average nine or more points including three in double figures. Junior Corey Tripp averages a team-best 16.2 points per game to rank fifth in the SoCon, with first-year transfer from Northeastern State Dillon Bailey (13.9 ppg, 14th) and Canadian-born junior Kyler Filewich (10.6 ppg) rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers. Filewich nearly averages a double-double on the year, adding a team-best 9.9 rebounds per game.
Seeded sixth in last year's conference tournament after an 8-10 finish in the regular season, Wofford was picked eighth in this year's preseason coaches and media polls.
The Terriers and Catamounts have four common opponents on the season. Wofford went 3-1 in the four meetings with wins over High Point, Gardner-Webb, and Middle Tennessee, with an overtime loss to UNC Asheville. WCU posted a 2-2 record against the same opponents, falling to High Point and Gardner-Webb on the road with a road win at MTSU and a home victory over UNCA.
Western Carolina and Wofford meet for the 67th time in men's basketball with the Catamounts trailing by just two games, 32-34, in the head-to-head series. The Catamounts halted a four-game series slide last year by sweeping the two regular-season meetings for the first time since the 2019-20 season. WCU has won 18 of the 30 all-time series meetings held in Cullowhee.
Last year, WCU earned a thrilling five-point, 76-71, win over Wofford in Cullowhee as the Catamounts erased a four-point deficit over the final 33 seconds with
Russell Jones Jr. capping the comeback by burying the go-ahead 3-pointer with 14.6 seconds left. The return bout one-upped the first match-up as the Catamounts outlasted the Terriers in double-overtime 95-91 as Jackson (47 points) and Woolbright (30 points) combined to score 77 to lead the Catamounts.
In the two meetings a season ago, Jackson averaged 32.0 points per game and Woolbright averaged 25 points, while Corey Tripp was tops among the Terrier returners with a 17.5-point average between the 2022-23 meetings.
Following Saturday's brief stop in the Ramsey Center, the Catamounts hit the road in conference play for their next two games, visiting mountain-rival ETSU on Wednesday (Jan. 10), and traveling to Mercer next Saturday (Jan. 13). WCU's next home game is a nationally-televised match-up against league co-leader Samford on Tuesday, Jan. 16, with a special 6 p.m. start on the CBS Sports Network. WCU will celebrate former Catamount Ronnie Carr who made the first 3-pointer in NCAA basketball history back in 1980.
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