Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's basketball takes its second swing at hitting the 20-win plateau for the year as the Catamounts travel to Lexington, Va., on Saturday afternoon to face the VMI Keydets on post at Cameron Hall. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
 
Saturday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) and the Watch ESPN app, with live streaming audio from the Catamount Sports Network and live stats available online at CatamountSports.com. Fans can also listen to the game locally on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" in Sylva (wrgc.com).
 
Western Carolina (19-9, 8-7 SoCon) rallied back from a 10-point second-half deficit on Wednesday night at instate league rival UNCG, but a pair of late 3-pointers by Keyshaun Langley pushed the Spartans to the 71-65 victory at the Greensboro Coliseum. Russell Jones Jr. scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half with Vonterius Woolbright matching with 22 points led the Catamount scoring effort. Tre Jackson and DJ Campbell both just missed double figures with nine points apiece.
 
Woolbright continues to pace four Catamounts in double figures, averaging a double-double to lead the conference at 22.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He also leads the SoCon in minutes played with an average of 34.7 per game, while ranking second in assists with 5.3 per contest. Tre Jackson is 16th in scoring with a 13.4 point per game average thanks in part to hitting 3.1 3-pointers per game, second in the league. Russell Jones Jr. has scored 20+ points in consecutive outings to rank 20th in scoring at 12.3 points per game, just ahead of sophomore teammate DJ Campbell (21st, 11.9 ppg). Jones Jr. is second in the SoCon shooting 42.1 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Additionally, Charles Lampten has moved into the Top 25 in rebounding this season at 4.7 boards per game, while also ranking fourth in the league with an average of 1.7 blocked shots per game. Having swatted 46 this year, the College of Charleston transfer ranks seventh in WCU's single-season record books, 14 blocks shy of the Top Five.
 
The Catamounts continue to have a magic number of one to lock themselves into the quarterfinal round of the rapidly approaching Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship at the Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville (March 8-11). A WCU win or losses by current seventh-place ETSU and Mercer would guarantee the Catamounts a finish above the seventh-place cut line and a first-round bye thanks in part to holding the head-to-head tiebreakers over both the Bucs and Bears.
 
VMI (4-24, 1-14 SoCon) enters the weekend amidst a nine-game winless drought since scoring its lone league win over rival The Citadel back on Jan. 20. And despite the defeats, the young Keydets have had multiple close calls including a one-point loss at home to ETSU (Jan. 24, 74-73) and a four-point loss to Chattanooga (Feb. 8, 88-84). Last time out, the Keydets fell behind by 23 before erasing all but eight points of the deficit and eventually suffering a 13-point loss, 82-69, in Johnson City, Tenn., against ETSU.
 
Three Keydets average double-digit scoring led by Brennan Watkins at 15.2 points per game – ninth in the SoCon, though the guard has missed VMI's last four games. Watkins is second in the league from the foul line at 87 percent. Tyran Cook is second on the squad with 12.5 points per game which puts him 19th in the league with Taeshaud Jackson II averaging a double-double with 10.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game – the only other SoCon player besides WCU's Woolbright to average double-digit boards.
 
The two teams are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to scoring defense this year as WCU continues to pace the SoCon at 68.9 points per contest. VMI is surrendering 81.7 points a game, 10th out of the 10 teams.
 
The Catamounts look for their fifth-straight series victory over VMI on Saturday after cruising to the 102-77 win in the first meeting at home back on Jan. 27. Including 18 unanswered points in the opening moments, WCU put 63 on the scoreboard in the first half to carry a 30-point lead into intermission in one of the squad's best offensive performances of the season. Five Catamounts scored in double figures with Jones Jr. scoring 22 and Woolbright posting his third triple-double of the season in the winning effort.
 
WCU leads the all-time series against the Keydets, 40-29, with Saturday marking the 70th all-time head-to-head meeting. However, the series in Lexington is even at 16 wins and 16 losses apiece with the last eight games evenly split, 4-4. The Catamounts won on the road a year ago, 71-65, but have dropped two of the last three overall away from home.
 
Following Saturday's longest conference road trip, Western Carolina returns to Cullowhee for its final home game of the regular season on Wednesday, Feb. 28, looking to "Paint It Purple" against chromatic rival Furman in the penultimate game before the conference tournament. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
 
All fans are encouraged to wear purple to WCU's fourth nationally-televised game this season, airing on ESPNU and available through the Watch ESPN app. The Catamounts will wear their purple Nike uniforms at home with the first 300 WCU students into the arena receiving a replica jersey, courtesy of The Everson.

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