Cullowhee, N.C. – Riding a two-game winning streak entering Saturday afternoon's regular-season finale, Western Carolina travels to the Scenic City to face the Chattanooga Mocs in Southern Conference men's basketball action at The McKenzie Arena. Postseason seeding for the conference tournament is still up for grabs as the two 20-win teams tip at 2 p.m. from the Roundhouse as UTC celebrates its Senior Day.
 
Saturday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live streaming audio from the Catamount Sports Network and live stats available through links online at CatamountSports.com. Fans can also listen to the CSN broadcast locally on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" in Sylva (wrgc.com).
 
Fresh off its home 85-77 victory over chromatic rival Furman on Wednesday night in the home finale, Western Carolina (21-9, 10-7 SoCon) hits the final weekend of the regular season in a tie with the Paladins (10-7) for fourth place in the conference standings, a game ahead of sixth-place Wofford (9-8). Depending upon the results of Saturday's action, WCU can finish as high as fourth but as low as sixth, already locked into one of the two evening games coming up in a week in the quarterfinal round of the Ingles SoCon Basketball Tournament in Asheville.
 
Furman hosts Mercer – which is tied for seventh in the standings with ETSU – in the final game at Timmons Arena in its current configuration on Saturday while Wofford hits the road to 10th-place VMI looking for double-digit league wins.
 
Chattanooga (20-10, 12-5 SoCon) plays its final home date of the regular season tied for second with UNCG (12-5). The Mocs and Spartans will determine the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in next week's postseason tournament. UNCG is on the road at ETSU, which is tied with Mercer for seventh.
 
Last time out, the Catamounts put five players in double figures led by senior guard Russell Jones Jr., with 20 points and the NCAA-leading fourth triple-double of the season by Vonterius Woolbright as he finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. WCU used a total team effort to upend the Furman Paladins, 85-77. DJ Campbell scored a dozen points while Bernard Pelote chipped in 11 and Tre Jackson finished with 10 as the Catamounts rallied in the second half to earn the seasonal split with its chromatic rival.
 
Woolbright continues to lead four Catamounts averaging double-digit scoring coming off his 25th double-double effort in the 30 seasonal games, tied with Enrique Freeman of Akron for the most in the country. The Albany, Ga., product is averaging 21.6 points per game, now 10th nationally while his 12.0 rebounds per game average continue to put him second in the NCAA. He leads the nation in defensive rebounding, averaging 9.73 defensive boards per game.
 
Jackson ranks 17th in the conference with a 13.3 point-per-game average while sitting second with an average of 2.9 3-pointers per game. The Columbia, S.C., native has just three made triples over his last three games, though, shooting 3-for-12 during that stretch. Jones Jr. is 19th in the league in scoring at 12.7 points per game while also ranking fifth in 3-point field goal percentage, and DJ Campbell (23rd, 12.0 ppg) rounds out the double-figure scorers – 10th in the league in field goal percentage at 53.2 percent.
 
Chattanooga (20-10, 12-5 SoCon) became the fourth SoCon team to hit the 20-win plateau back on Feb. 28, as the Mocs rebounded from a 71-62 upset loss at The Citadel with an 84-75 home win over Mercer in the midweek. The SoCon ranks tied with the ACC, Big Ten, and Mountain West with four 20-win teams – one of six conferences in the nation with four or more teams with 20+ victories. The SEC (6) and Big 12 (5) are the only other leagues with more.
 
The Mocs lineup boasts two of the top seven scorers in the Southern Conference as two VMI transfers Honor Huff (17.7 ppg) and Trey Bonham (16.3 ppg) rank fourth and seventh, respectively. Huff was the first player in the SoCon to surpass the 100 3-pointers made list with 101 on the year, ranking first with a 3.4 treys per game average. Sam Alexis ranks fourth in the SoCon in rebounding at 9.1 per contest, joined in the league's Top 25 by Tyler Millin (4.8 rpg), Randy Brady (4.8 rpg), and Bonham at 4.7 boards per contest.
 
The SoCon's third-best scoring offense hosts the league's fourth-best offensive squad as WCU visits Chattanooga. In addition to ranking fourth at 76.7 points per game, the Catamounts boast the top-scoring defense in the conference, limiting foes to just 68.5 points per contest. The Mocs rank second in field goal percentage at 47.1% while the Catamounts counter with the second-ranked field goal percentage defense, limiting the opposition to 40.9 percent from the floor including 32.6 percent from beyond the arc, also the second-best in the league this season.
 
The Mocs also boast the SoCon's best team free-throw percentage at 74.6 percent collectively.
 
UTC shot 60 percent from the floor in the second half as the Mocs rallied from a 10-point first-half deficit to survive its trip to Cullowhee, 91-85, back on Jan. 31, denying the Catamounts consecutive home series wins. Woolbright scored a career-high 36 points in the first meeting with Chattanooga who put two in double figures with Bonham scoring 22 points and Jan Zidek finishing with 20. The Mocs connected on a dozen 3-pointers in becoming just one of two WCU opponents this season to crest the 90-point plateau.
 
WCU looks to snap a three-game series losing skid on the road, having fallen in its last three trips to Chattanooga since winning three straight at the Roundhouse from 2018-2020. The Catamounts trail at McKenzie Arena overall 6-39 as a part of trailing all-time 31-71 in a series that dates back to 1969.
 
Saturday's league action will determine the seeding for next week's Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship at Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville. The tournament opens Thursday, March 7, with a full slate of women's games with the men's first-round matchups between the bottom four seeds scheduled for the evening of Friday (March 8). Each of the remaining eight seeds will take to the court on Saturday with WCU penciled into one of the two evening session games.
 
Again this year, the Catamount Club's Catamount Central for the duration of the tournament is Mellow Mushroom (50 Broadway St., Asheville, NC 28801). Pregame socials ahead of every game the Catamounts play in Asheville will be held at the downtown pizzeria location. A complete schedule will be made available once the seeding and game times are determined and released.
 
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