Cullohwee, N.C. – The Madness of March heads to western North Carolina and the Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville this week as it's tournament time for Western Carolina as the Catamount women's basketball team heads east for the 2025 Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship. The eighth-seed Catamounts face the top-seeded UNC Greensboro to raise the curtain on tournament action at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
WCU's tournament opener will be live-streamed on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with a free live audio broadcast available from the Catamount Sports Network available online at CatamountSports.com.
Catamount fans in town for the tournament will gather at the Early Girl Eatery (Asheville-Downtown, 8 Wall St.) on Thursday morning before heading to the Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville for the first Education Day tournament game.
Western Carolina enters Thursday's rematch with the league regular-season champion after picking up an elusive road win over the Samford Bulldogs 76-69 to close the regular season. The Spartans posted an emphatic 76-37 win over the Mercer Bears in Macon, Ga.
Thursday's Championship Matchup:
No. 8 Western Carolina (13-16, 3-11 SoCon) vs No. 1 UNC Greensboro (22-6, 13-1 SoCon)
March 6, 2025, | Harras Cherokee Center | Asheville, N.C. |11:00 a.m.
Watch (ESPN+): https://tinyurl.com/mrxpwedk
Listen (CSN): https://stream.prestosports.com/wcu
Live Stats: https://tinyurl.com/46cm9vx2
Full Court Press – About the Teams:
The Catamounts and Spartans meet for the third time this season and for the 86th time in a back-and-forth all-time series. UNCG broke the head-to-head series tie by edging WCU 57-53 in Greensboro to win both ends of the regular-season home-and-home after claiming a tight 66-58 win in Cullowhee.
Thursday's meeting is just the third postseason bout between the two teams this century, with the previous two meetings split evenly. The Catamounts are 1-0 over the Spartans in Asheville, taking a 77-60 victory over the fellow North Carolina system school in the first round of the 2014 tournament. UNCG's sole postseason victory over the Catamounts came in Charlotte in a tight 57-55 decision in 2010.
The Spartans have outscored the Catamounts 123-111 in their two meetings, though the 12-point differential is the smallest for UNCG this season outside of their 122-107 differential with the Wofford Terriers.
UNCG posted a strong 13-1 record against Southern Conference opponents this season with its lone loss coming at Wofford, 62-39, back on Jan. 16. However, both matchups against the Catamounts were single-digit affairs as the Spartans were forced to overcome fourth-quarter deficits to secure their wins. UNCG carries an 11-game winning streak into Thursday morning's opener.
The Catamounts were 3-11 against the SoCon this season, but recorded impressive wins at home over ETSU (64-60) and Furman (70-57), and most recently, Samford on the road, 76-69. WCU's win in Alabama was the first on the road against the Bulldogs since their initial season in the Southern Conference in 2009. The 76 points conceded by the 'Dogs were the second-most in a home conference game for Samford, trailing only the 84 scored by Wofford.
Both squads battled a pair of Big South opponents in the nonconference slate, earning wins over the USC Upstate Spartans and the UNC Asheville Bulldogs. The Spartans took a 62-54 win over Upstate early in November before claiming an 11-point, 59-48 victory over the Bulldogs. The Catamounts took down both Big South foes on the road, erupting for a 28-point, 80-52 win over the Spartans in Spartanburg before posting a 77-64 victory in Asheville.
Players to Watch:
The first Catamount to earn an all-conference first-team nod since Kalia-Shea Menendez in 2022-23, AC Carter garnered the attention of her SoCon peers after leading the league in scoring with 427 points (14.7 ppg). Still with games to go, Carter would be the first Catamount to earn the scoring crown since Lauren Echols did so in the 2000-01 season with 505 points across 28 games (18.0 ppg).
Senior Jada Burton and sophomore Tyja Beans have also had outstanding seasons for the Catamounts, pacing the conference in assists and rebounds, respectively. Burton recorded nine assists in the 76-69 win over Samford to close out the regular season, breaking a 30-year WCU single-season record with 155 helpers so far. The previous record was 154 set by Missy Broy back in the 1994-95 season.
The conference's leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, Tyja Beans is up to 237 boards this season including 104 on the offensive glass and 133 on the defensive end. She also has 371 points (12.8 ppg) and is one of only two players with 350 or more points and 230 or more rebounds before tournament play begins, with SoCon Player and Defensive Player of the Year Evangelia Paulk being the other (357 points/ 230 rebounds)
Three Spartans earn a combined seven postseason accolades with freshman Nya Smith leading the way. The Roswell, Ga. product was named to the all-conference first team and the all-freshman team. She garnered SoCon Freshman of the Year plaudits and was also dubbed the SoCon's Sixth Woman of the Year documenting her play off the bench. Smith was second on the team in scoring, recording 322 points (11.5 ppg) across her 28 game appearances. She went for 30 points in her two matchups with the Catamounts going 9/27 from the floor (4/13 3FG) and picking up 9 rebounds to go along with three assists.
The Spartans' leading scorer Jayde Gamble and the SoCon's second-leading rebounder Khalis Cain earned All-SoCon second-team placements, with Cain also earning a spot on the all-defensive team. Gamble averaged 12.0 points per game, the seventh-most in the conference while Cain was a force on the boards with 236 total rebounds, trailing only Tyja Bean's 237.
Up Next for the Catamounts:
A Western Carolina win over the Spartans on Thursday morning would propel the Catamounts to the SoCon semifinals on Friday morning. The Catamounts would face the winner of No. 4 Wofford vs. No. 5 Samford quarterfinal at 11 a.m. on March 8. WCU split with the Bulldogs, falling in double-overtime with the league's fifth-place team at home before claiming the road meeting in Birmingham, Ala. Wofford took both regular-season meetings with the Catamounts including a 13-point decision in Spartanburg in mid-January, but escaped the Ramsey Center with just a two-point tally, 70-68, back on Feb. 13.
