Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's basketball closes its season-long three-game home stand on Saturday afternoon as the Catamounts welcome in the reigning Southern Conference tournament champion, Samford. The matchup with the Bulldogs is set for a 3 p.m. tip from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.

Saturday's game is Youth Basketball Day for WCU and all youth players get in FREE to the Ramsey Center in their team jersey or T-shirt, courtesy of First Citizens Bank. The contest will also feature a halftime "Diaper Derby," presented by New Generations Family Birthing Center at Harris Regional Hospital. Toddlers will race across the court at halftime to win prizes.

Tickets for Saturday afternoon's league showdown are available in advance by phone at (828) 227-2401 or online at CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets.

The matchup between the Catamounts and Bulldogs will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Live streaming audio from the Catamount Sports Network and live stats are available online at CatamountSports.com. Fans can also listen to the game locally on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC, "The River" in Sylva (www.wrgc.com). 

For a second-straight game, Western Carolina faces a conference foe that emerged from the nonconference portion of the schedule with double-digit wins. The Catamounts opened the SoCon slate against Furman, who had a school-record 12 nonconference victories coming into Cullowhee, while Samford enters with 10 wins before the start of the New Year.

Matchup: Samford (11-3, 1-0 SoCon) vs Western Carolina (4-8, 0-1 SoCon)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 4
Time: 3 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)  
Live Stats:  Sidearm Stats
Live Video: ESPN+ (paid subscription required)
Live Audio: Catamount Sports Network
Radio: 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" (wrgc.com)
Twitter: @CatamountMBB 
BUY TICKETS NOW 

About Western Carolina:
Senior Bernard Pelote tallied his second double-double of the season, but chromatic rival Furman rode a strong start to build a double-digit lead and drained 11 3-pointers to push past Western Carolina 90-61 in the SoCon opener for both teams last Wednesday on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.

Pelote battled to finish with a team-high 17 points, making seven field goals, including a pair of 3-pointers, while pulling down a team-best 12 rebounds. He was one of four players in the conference to post a double-double on Wednesday's opening day of conference action.

Junior Brandon Morgan, who returned to the starting lineup, added to the offensive attack with a season-high 14 points on an efficient 6-of-9 shooting with a pair of threes. He also added a team-high four assists and was one of six players for WCU to block a shot.

The Catamount bench has filled the scoreboard throughout the start of the 2024-25 season, averaging 26.3 points per game, which ranks fourth in the SoCon.

Junior Ice Emery posted his second double-figure output in reserve with an 11-point outing on Wednesday against Furman. He has scored 38 points over three games off the bench this season. Redshirt sophomore Marcus Kell has tallied a team-high 45 points over eight games off the bench, followed by Morgan with 44. The Catamounts have seen a bench player with double-figures nine times, led by Emery's 24 against Truett McConnell.

Western Carolina is in the top spot in the SoCon with 40.1 rebounds per game over the first 12 games, led by Pelote at 7.9 per game – the second-best average in the SoCon following his double-double on Wednesday. He leads the league at 6.25 defensive rebounds per game, with the second-most defensive rebounds in the league at 75 defensive boards. Kell sits sixth in the conference, averaging 2.1 offensive rebounds per game as he leads the squad with 25 offensive boards. Kell is followed closely by Pelote and junior Vernon Collins, who have 20 offensive boards each.

Transfer guard Cord Stansberry sits second in the SoCon with a 93.5% (29-of-31) at the free throw line. Collins leads the Catamounts with 13 blocks, sitting in a tie for fourth as he's averaging just over a block a game and is fifth in rejections in the league. He is also fifth in the league with a 60.4% (29-of-48) field goal percentage, while Chase McKey is seventh in the SoCon at 60% (18-of-30) shooting performance.

WCU has been well-tested to begin the 2024-25 season, the first under veteran head coach Tim Craft. Per the NET strength of schedule (SOS) rankings, the Catamounts maintain the top spot in the SoCon with the 37th toughest schedule. The Catamounts are one of four teams in the league to have played multiple opponents in quadrant one, in the form of Marquette and Tennessee. UNCG, Samford, and Chattanooga each join WCU in playing a stiff nonconference slate with multiple quadrant one opponents.  

Scouting the Opposition:
Samford enters Saturday's showdown with an 11-3 record after using 18 3-pointers in an 86-56 victory over The Citadel in its league opener at home. The Bulldogs enter the weekend having won seven of their last eight games with the lone blemish being a road defeat to Big 12 foe Arizona. Samford has a pair of Power-Four conference losses against quad-one foe Michigan State and the aforementioned Wildcats.

The Bulldogs are 8-0 at home this season with just three wins in six road games heading to Cullowhee.

Senior guard Trey Fort – a transfer from Mississippi State – leads the Bulldogs with 15 points per game to rank eighth in the SoCon. Playing with his fifth program since 2020, Fort has eclipsed 20 points in three games including a season-high 27, connecting seven threes against Alabama A&M. Fort is second in the SoCon and top 20 in the nation with 45 made threes, shooting 43.3% clip beyond the arc, second-best in the league. Junior forward Jaden Brownell – a Utah native who transferred from Illinois-Chicago – checks in averaging 14.1 points per contest, connecting on the second-highest percentage in the league at 58.8% field goals in the 2024-25 season with a season-high 24 against North Alabama.

Three-time transfer, most recently from Tulane, senior forward Collin Holloway enters averaging 10.9 points per game, shooting 45.5% (51-of-112) from the field and pulling down a team-high 4.7 rebounds per game. Holloway tallied a double-double in a win over North Dakota State with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Graduate student guard Rylan Jones rounds out the double-figure scorers for the Bulldogs with 10.8 points per game with seven double-figure scoring outputs as he's made 44.0% (33-of-75) threes. Jones, who is Samford's lone returning starter among nine returning lettermen from a season ago, also paces the squad with 83 assists.

Samford sits atop the SoCon, making a league-high 170 threes and a conference-best 445 field goals, the second-highest spot in the league at 47.8% field goal percentage. Led by Jones with his 83 helpers, Samford leads the conference with 264 assists and also tallied a league-high 151 steals. The Bulldogs are scoring a league-best 88.8 points per game with six games over 97 points scored this season. Samford ranks inside the top 10 nationally in scoring, as the Bulldogs are amongst the national leaders in three-pointers made per game.

Under fifth-year head coach Bucky McMillan, Samford was picked to repeat as SoCon Tournament Champions in the 10-team preseason poll led by Holloway and Jones, who were both named to the league's 10-player Preseason All-League team. The Bulldogs finished the 2023-24 season with a 29-6 record, including a 15-3 mark in league play, before falling in a tight battle to Kansas in the opening round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.   

Series History:
Samford and Western Carolina meet for the 33rd time between the two schools, with the Bulldogs holding an 18-14 lead in the all-time series. Samford currently holds a seven-game win streak. Samford claimed a tight four-point win last season in Cullowhee as the 2024 home tilt featured a national broadcast on CBS Sports Network. WCU holds an 11-5 record in the head-to-head matchups that have been held in Cullowhee, with the last win in the series coming in a 109-78 triumph during the 2019-20 season. 

Up Next for Western Carolina:
The Catamounts hit the road for the first time in the 2025 calendar year with a trip to Spartanburg to battle Wofford on Wednesday, Jan. 8, from Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Tip-off between the Catamounts and Terriers is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday's game will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), with live audio coverage through the Catamount Sports Network available on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" in Sylva and streaming LIVE through CatamountSports.com. Live stats are also available on CatamountSports.com. 

Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's basketball and WCU Athletics through our social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@catamountmbb @wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@CatamountMBB @catamounts).