Lexington, Va. – Redshirt junior Cord Stansberry posted his first career double-double with 17 points and a career-best 11 rebounds to lead five Catamounts in double figures as Western Carolina men's basketball closed the road portion of the 2025-26 regular season with a convincing 81-62 victory on Saturday over VMI at Cameron Hall.
After the Keydets cut WCU's first-half lead to six, 36-30, in the final minute of the opening 20 minutes, WCU cobbled together a 17-to-7 run around the halftime locker room and into the second half to push the lead to 16, 53-37. WCU never looked back as the Catamounts went on to claim the 19-point victory, earning back-to-back SoCon road wins and their fourth win in a row overall.
Saturday's 81 points mark the fourth straight game Western Carolina has eclipsed 80 point mark as the Purple & Gold improved to 10-2 on the season when eclipsing the 80-point threshold. WCU also climbed to 12-3 when leading at the half and is 12-5 when outrebounding its opponents, including an 8-4 mark in SoCon action.
With the win, the Catamounts improved to 8-8 in league play. Along with other action in the SoCon, including UNCG falling to regular-season champion ETSU, the Catamounts enter the final week of the regular season tied with the Spartans for sixth place. The two split the regular-season meetings, meaning WCU's season sweep of ETSU currently gives the Catamounts a key tiebreaker and pushes them into sixth place, the final spot that avoids the opening round of the 2026 Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Tournament.
Stansberry led the Catamounts with a team-best 17 points, coming on 6-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-5 from range. He added a career-high 11 rebounds and picked up four assists and a steal. Graduate transfer Tidjiane Dioumassi tallied 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting, along with four assists and four rebounds. Freshman Samuel Dada just missed his fifth double-double of the season, finishing with 14 points and a team-best nine rebounds.
Freshman Tahlan Pettway chipped in 11 points with three from beyond the arc, with four assists and a pair of rebounds. Redshirt junior Marcus Kell rounded out the double-figure scoring for WCU with 10 points and five rebounds.
WCU freshman Tayeshaun Smith recorded a pair of steals to lead the Catamounts as sophomore transfer Justin Johnson joined Stansberry, Dioumassi, and Pettway with a team-best four assists as WCU tallied its best output in SoCon play with 20 helpers.
Walker Andrews led a trio of Keydets with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-4 from range. Cal Liston tallied 12 points, while TJ Johnson rounded out the double-figure scoring for VMI with 12 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Tan Yildizoglu led the Keydets with four assists, and Linus Holmstrom had eight points for the hosts.
Western Carolina (12-15, 8-8 SoCon) opened the contest fast with a 12-4 run, which included the game's first five points from Dada and Dioumassi over the opening six minutes. Following a quick triple from the Keydets, WCU blew the scoreboard open with 11 unanswered over the next three and a half minutes to stretch the lead to 16, 23-7 near the midway mark of the first half.
VMI (6-23, 1-15 SoCon) battled back with a 15-to-5 spurt of its own over the following four and a half minutes to cut the deficit to just six, 28-22. The two teams traded blows over the next two minutes before the Catamounts scored four of the final six points in the half to take a 38-30 lead to the halftime locker room.
The Catamounts opened the second half with a 15-7 run over the first seven minutes, going 5-of-9 from the field as six players scored to stretch the advantage to 16, 53-37. The Keydets then used a 16-8 spurt that cut the deficit to eight, 61-53. But the Catamounts would not let the action get any closer as three straight 3-pointers from Pettway and Stansberry pushed the lead back out to 17, 70-53.
WCU used a 9-to-3 run capped by a triple by redshirt freshman Drew Hollifield to push the advantage to 22 before ultimately ending up at the 81-62 final.
Western Carolina finished the contest shooting 45.2% (28-of-62) from the field, including 53.6% (15-of-28) in the second half to help outscore the Keydets, 43-32. WCU connected on 10 3-pointers in the win, the ninth time and fourth straight in SoCon play that the Catamounts have made double-figure 3-pointers. WCU also went 15-of-17 (88.2%) at the free-throw line. VMI was held to 39.3% (22-of-56) from the field, while making 11 threes at a 37.9% rate. The Keydets made 7-of-11 at the stripe.
The Catamounts controlled the glass by 11, 41-30, including a 10-5 edge on the offensive glass, which WCU parlayed into a 13-to-3 lead in second-chance scoring. Western Carolina outscored VMI in the paint by 12, 28-16, as the hosts had a 20-14 lead in bench scoring and a 10-3 lead in fast break points. Western Carolina had 12 points off the seven Keydets' giveaways as VMI had five points off WCU's season-low three turnovers. In the two wins over VMI this season, the Catamounts had 37 assists compared to just seven turnovers, as the four and three in the two contests mark the season lows for WCU.
The Catamounts return to Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center to open the final week of the 2025-26 regular season, hosting Mercer on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. Wednesday's game will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), as live audio will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network, with live stats will be provided via a link at CatamountSports.com.
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