Cullowhee, N.C. – Coming off a thrilling overtime win at Furman on Saturday, Western Carolina men's basketball looks to continue its winning ways on Wednesday with a trip to Birmingham, Ala., to battle Samford at the Pete Hanna Center.
Both teams enter Wednesday's matchup with 1-1 records in league play as the Catamounts split with the two Upstate foes, falling at home to Wofford before upending Furman at Timmons Arena. Samford plays its first SoCon home game after splitting its first two on the road, downing VMI by 20 (78-58) before falling at UNCG, 89-82, on Saturday.
Wednesday's tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Live stats will be available online at CatamountSports.com.
Men's Basketball Matchup: Western Carolina (5-8, 1-1) at Samford (8-7, 1-1)
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 7
Time: 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT
Site: Pete Hanna Center (Birmingham, Ala.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Live Video: ESPN Plus (paid subscription required)
Twitter: @CatamountMBB
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About Western Carolina:
Western Carolina opened its three-game SoCon road swing in style, using a 9-0 burst in overtime to outlast chromatic rival Furman on Saturday afternoon at the newly renovated Timmons Arena. Graduate transfer Julien Soumaoro and redshirt junior Marcus Kell led with 16 points apiece, two of four Catamounts in double figures in the road win. Kell was key in the second half and overtime, scoring 13 of his 16 points, with a pair of threes.
Redshirt junior Cord Stansberry added 15 points, hitting three 3-pointers and pulling down five rebounds. Graduate transfer Tidjiane Dioumassi rounded out the double-figure scoring with 12 points and filled the stat sheet with six rebounds and a team-best four assists in the road tally over the Paladins.
The Catamounts ended pre-SoCon action on a high note over the last eight games, averaging 79.5 points per contest, and raised their seasonal per-game average from 71.7 to 77.2. Kell leads the Catamounts in that stretch with 13.9 points per game, as he has maintained the top spot in scoring for the Purple & Gold during the stretch. Soumaoro has contributed 10.3 points per game, including a team-best 17 threes during the last eight games. Sophomore CJ Hyland sits with 10.2 points per contest in the last eight, followed by Stansberry, who has 10.0 points per game, including a 24-of-29 mark at the charity stripe.
The Catamounts have continued to crash the boards in the 2025-26 season, averaging a league-best 40.2 rebounds per game through 13 contests. Coming off their eighth double-figure offensive rebounds showing on Saturday in Greenville, the Purple & Gold lead the league in offensive rebounds per game (13.8), and sit fifth in defensive rebounds (26.5).
Sophomore transfer Abdulai Fanta Kabba leads the Catamounts in rebounding with 7.3 rebounds per game, ranking sixth in the SoCon. Next is Samuel Dada at 6.2 rebounds per game, ranking 10th in the league in rebounding. Kell averages 4.5 per game. Each player has at least 17 offensive rebounds; Kabba's 37 (2.8 per game) puts him third in the league, followed by Dada with 33 (2.5 per game), tied for fourth in the conference. As a group, they have helped WCU win or tie the rebounding battle in eight games this season, highlighted by a 64-rebound outing against VUL.
Soumaoro averages 2.4 3-pointers per game, tied for fourth in the league, and is tied for seventh in the conference with 31 made triples. Kabba is sixth in blocks with 14.
In conference play, Dada is tied for the conference-high with 4.5 offensive rebounds per game, as he also ranks third in overall rebounds at 9.5 per contest. Dioumassi sits with 4.5 assists per contest, ranking in a tie for sixth in the league through the opening weekend of SoCon action.
Scouting the Opposition:
Samford (8-7, 1-1 SoCon) enters Wednesday after splitting the opening week of conference play, winning at VMI and falling at UNCG. The loss to the Spartans snapped a four-game win streak that the Bulldogs carried into the opening of SoCon play.
The Bulldogs posted a 22-11 record last season, including a 12-6 mark in the SoCon, before falling to George Mason in the opening round of the NIT. Furman ousted Samford in the opening round of the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament.
Graduate transfer Jadin Booth leads the Samford offense with a league-best 19.2 points per game, scoring in double figures in 10 games and notching seven games of 20 or more points. Booth, a Florida Southern College transfer, leads the SoCon with 52 threes and has been elite at the charity stripe, going 58-of-63 (92.1%).
Junior Dylan Faulkner averages 16.9 points over 14 games, ranking fifth in the league. Faulkner sits third in the league with a 61% field-goal percentage (89-of-146). Redshirt senior Keaton Norris rounds out the double-figure scoring at 11.2 points per contest.
Faulkner tops the team with 6.9 rebounds per game, tallying a pair of double-doubles on the season, and sits in a tie for seventh in the league in rebounding. Norris leads the Bulldogs in assists with 55 helpers, ranking in a tie for second in per-game assists. Faulkner is second in the conference with 26 blocks at a 1.9 per game clip.
Veteran head coach Lennie Acuff leads the Bulldogs in his first season at the helm. Over his coaching career, he's spent time at Berry, Belhaven, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Lipscomb before joining Samford this season, with over 430 career wins.
Samford was picked third in the 10-team preseason poll by the league's coaches, as Faulkner and Booth were both named to the league's preseason team.
Series History:
Wednesday's tilt marks the 35th all-time meeting between the two squads, with Samford holding a 20-14 lead in the series. Samford has won the last nine meetings and holds a commanding 14-3 lead in games played in Alabama. The Catamounts are looking for their first true road win against the Bulldogs since February 5, 2020, when WCU downed Samford 78-70 inside the Pete Hanna Center.
Up Next:
Following Wednesday's action in Birmingham, the Catamounts close out a conference season-long three-game road swing with a trip on Saturday, Jan. 10, with a trip to Charleston, S.C., to battle The Citadel. The meeting with the Bulldogs is slated for a 1 p.m. start and will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), with live audio from the Catamount Sports Network, and live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
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