Men's Basketball 2/21/2025 12:00:00 PM Greg Hartlage, Director of Media Relations

Catamounts Tangle with Bulldogs in Saturday Showdown

Cullowhee, N.C. – After a tight battle at now league-leading Chattanooga on Wednesday, Western Carolina men's basketball looks to get back in the win column on its trip to Birmingham to battle Samford in Saturday's final road contest of February. Tip-off from the Pete Hanna Center between the Bulldogs and the Catamounts is slated for 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT.

Saturday's meeting with the Bulldogs will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), and live stats will also be available via a link on CatamountSports.com.

Matchup: Western Carolina (8-18, 4-11 SoCon) at Samford (20-8, 10-5 SoCon)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 22
Time: 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT
Site: Pete Hanna Center (Birmingham, Ala.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Live Video: ESPN+ (paid subscription required)
Twitter: @CatamountMBB

About Western Carolina:
Among the most improved players across the Southern Conference in 2024-25, WCU redshirt sophomore Marcus Kell continued his torrid pace in league play with a career-high 31 points on Wednesday night, but a late scoring surge by Chattanooga allowed the Mocs to hold off upset-minded Western Carolina for a 91-86 victory in league action at the McKenzie Arena.

Western Carolina led by three, 72-69, with 6:48 to play in regulation before Chattanooga used an 18-to-5 run to take the first double-digit lead of the night, 87-77. The Mocs then held on down the stretch to escape the scare from WCU, closing the night in first place in the SoCon standings.

Wednesday's 86 points for WCU mark the most scored by the Catamounts in a Southern Conference game this season and the highest in league play since scoring 85 back on Jan. 12 against Mercer in an 85-82 home win.

Kell has eclipsed double figures in his last eight games, averaging 19.3 points per game to rank second in the SoCon over that stretch. He's also third in rebounds per game in that timeframe at 8.9, one of five players in the league to have multiple double-doubles in his last eight games. He's netted back-to-back league Player of the Week awards, carrying that honor to Birmingham.

Thanks to his 31 points on Wednesday – WCU's first 30-point scorer since nine-time SoCon Player of the Week Vonterious Woolbright last season also against UTC – Kell is second on the WCU squad with a 14.1 point per game average and has reached double figures 10 times. He is also second on the team with 5.9 rebounds per contest, shooting at a 44.1% (64-of-145) clip in league play.

Senior Bernard Pelote sits among the top in the league in scoring during SoCon play as he enters the weekend seventh in scoring. The Savannah, Ga. native averages 16.3 points per game and is second in the league in conference games with 6.1 field goals per game. He ranks third in rebounding with 7.5 boards per conference game, and he's also tied ninth in league play with 37 made threes and tops in defensive rebounds with 92 while checking in third overall with 113 boards.

WCU is averaging 23.65 points per game off the bench from its reserves – the third-best mark in the conference. Junior Ice Emery s the leader in bench production for the Catamounts, scoring 134 points, as he tallied double-figure scoring in three of his last four games. He's followed closely by Kell, who tallied 116 points with double figures in his last eight starts.

The Catamounts have seen a bench player reach double-figures 18 times, high-pointed by Emery's 24 against Truett McConnell. Emery has a team lead with six double-digit point performances, and Kell has five double-figure point outputs in bench outings.

Western Carolina ranks third in the league in rebounds with 38.7 per game over 26 games. The Catamounts have boarded a league-high 27.9 defensive rebounds per contest. WCU sits just 0.4 rebounds behind Mercer for the top spot in the league. WCU also ranks second in the league in free-throw percentage at 76.1%, led by Stansberry, who's buried a league-high 93.1%, ranking among the top free-throw shooters in the nation.

Pelote leads the Catamounts on the glass with 7.5 per game—the second-best individual average in the SoCon. He also ranks first in the league with 6.0 defensive rebounds per game and second in the conference with 156 total defensive boards. Pelote is fourth in the league in conference play with 17 blocks, followed closely by Kell, who's tied for sixth with 14 rejections. Junior post Vernon Collins ranks sixth in conference play with 40 offensive rebounds.

Scouting the Opposition – Samford Bulldogs:
Samford enters Saturday's matchup with a 20-8 mark after dropping a tight 80-72 decision to Furman at home on Wednesday. The Bulldogs are on a slide of late, dropping three of their past four matchups against ETSU, Chattanooga, and the Paladins. Samford is a strong 12-3 on its home court despite dropping two in a row at the Pete Hanna Center.

Senior guard Trey Fort – a transfer from Mississippi State – leads the Bulldogs with 14.1 points per game to rank 11th in the SoCon. Playing with his fifth program since 2020, Fort has eclipsed 20 points in five games, including a season-high 36 against Wofford last week. Fort is tied for seventh in the SoCon with 70 made threes, shooting at a 39.3% clip beyond the arc.

Junior forward Jaden Brownell – a Utah native who transferred from Illinois-Chicago – checks in averaging 13.7 points per contest, connecting on 52.7% field goals in the 2024-25 season with a season-high 25 against Furman Wednesday night.

Graduate student guard Rylan Jones rounds out the double-figure scorers for the Bulldogs with 11.3 points per game and 17 double-figure scoring outputs, and he's made 41.1% (67-of-163) threes. Jones, Samford's lone returning starter among nine returning lettermen from a season ago, also paces the league with 146 assists.

Samford sits atop the SoCon, making a league-high 306 3-pointers and a conference-best 823 field goals, the second-highest spot in the league at 46.2% field goal percentage. Led by Jones with his 146 helpers, Samford sits third in the conference with 469 helpers and also tallied a league-high 270 steals. The Bulldogs are scoring a league-best 82.2 points per game, with 14 games over 83 points scored this season.

Samford ranks inside the top 10 nationally in 3-pointers made per game, steals per game, and turnovers forced 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.

Last Meeting vs Samford:
Senior Bernard Pelote tallied a team-best 22 points for his fourth-straight double-digit scoring effort, but Samford used a 17-to-4 run out of the halftime locker room to pull away and down Western Carolina 88-69 in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.

Pelote posted his second 20+ point performance of the season at the time. He made 9-of-13 field goals, including four 3-pointers, as he opened the day 4-for-4 from deep.

To date, WCU has fared much better the second time through SoCon lineup, averaging a 22 point differential from the first to second meetings including a 36-point swing against ETSU – losing by 27 on the road before winning by nine in Cullowhee. Two of the six return meetings in the second half of conference play have also gone into overtime with a combined finishing within five points or fewer.

Series History:
Samford and Western Carolina meet for the 34th time between the two schools with the Bulldogs holding a 19-14 lead in the all-time series. Samford currently holds an eight-game series win streak. The Bulldogs have controlled the series in Birmingham, winning 13 out of 16 matchups contested on Samford's home floor, including each of the last four.

Up Next for Western Carolina:
Following Saturday's action in Birmingham, the Catamounts return home for the final time in the 2024-25 season on Wednesday, Feb. 26, with a visit from Wofford. The home finale from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center is slated for a 7 p.m. tip. The matchup with the Terriers will be full of giveaways, as the first 400 students will receive a FREE purple WCU logo t-shirt, and the first 500 fans will receive a WCU keychain courtesy of Nathan Earwood.

Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Live audio coverage through the Catamount Sports Network is available online at CatamountSports.com and on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC "The River" in Sylva. Live stats are also available via a link 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).

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