Cullowhee, N.C. – Entering the final week of the regular season and barreling towards the 2026 Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship, Western Carolina men's basketball returns home for its first of two pivotal Southern Conference matchups, hosting the Mercer Bears on Wednesday night on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.

Both squads remain in the thick of a tight battle for Asheville, with two games separating the Bears (10-6) and the Catamounts (8-8) in the standings. WCU enters the week tied with UNCG for sixth in the standings, but holds the tiebreaker thanks to two wins over regular-season champion ETSU.
 
Overall, there is a two-game gap between the second- and seventh-seeded teams in the current standings.

Tip-off from Cullowhee is slated for 7 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Live audio from the Catamount Sports Network is on 105.7 FM/540 AM WRGC in Sylva, with streaming audio and live stats online at CatamountSports.com. Air time is 6:30 p.m., ahead of a 7 p.m. start.

The Catamounts improved to 8-8 in league play and have won four straight SoCon games after an 81-62 decision on the road against VMI last Saturday. Mercer (10-6) comes in having won three of its last four games, including an 89-86 win over Samford in Macon last time out.

Matchup: Mercer (18-11, 10-6 SoCon) vs Western Carolina (12-15, 8-8 SoCon)
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 25
Time: 7 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
Twitter: @CatamountMBB
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About Western Carolina:
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 over VMI at Cameron Hall.

Stansberry hit 3-of-5 from beyond the arc as part of 6-of-10 shooting, adding a career-high 11 rebounds and four assists. Graduate transfer Tidjiane Dioumassi scored15 points, 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.

Saturday's 81 points mark the fourth straight game Western Carolina has eclipsed 80 points, as the Purple & Gold improved to 10-2 on the season when reaching 80 or more. 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.

In SoCon play, the Catamounts have climbed to a tie for second in the league in scoring, averaging 79.6 points per game, as WCU has surpassed 78 points nine times in SoCon play with a 7-2 mark in those contests.

Individually in league play, Stansberry leads the squad at 15.3 points per game, followed by redshirt junior Marcus Kell at 13.4 per game. Graduate transfer Julien Soumaoro sits at 12.4 points per contest after missing the last two games due to injury. Dioumassi rounds out the quartet with 10.3 points per game, including four straight double-figure scoring outputs.
 
As a group, WCU has eight 20-point individual outputs in league action, as Stansberry has four, with Kell having a pair, Soumaoro picked up his first last weekend at UTC, and Pettway against UNCG.

The Catamounts have continued to crash the boards in 2025-26, averaging 38.7 rebounds per game through 27 contests, first in the SoCon. The Purple & Gold maintain the lead in the league in offensive rebounds per game (13.6).

Dada leads the Catamounts in rebounding with 7.37 per game, ranking fifth in the SoCon. He is followed by sophomore transfer Abdulai Fanta Kabba, who is 10th in the league in rebounding at 5.88 boards per game. Both players sit among the league leaders in offensive rebounding: Dada's 82 offensive boards (3.04 per game) rank second in total offensive boards and his per-game average. Kabba checks in tied for seventh in total offensive rebounds with 58 and is fifth in per-game average with 2.32.

In conference play, Dada is second in the league with 58 offensive rebounds, averaging 3.63 per game. He's also fifth in overall rebounds at 8.56 per contest. Dioumassi averages 3.07 assists per contest, ranking seventh in the league. Dada is sixth in the league at 1.06 blocks per game in conference play, with 17 rejections, sixth in the SoCon. Soumaoro is tied for fourth in the SoCon with 2.5 made threes per game, as Stansberry is 10th with 2.25 made triples.

Down the Stretch in SoCon Play:
Western Carolina enters the final week of the regular season just above the cut line in the 2026 Ingles SoCon Championship, tied for sixth overall at 8-8, and just a game behind the two-way tie for fourth between Furman (9-7) and Samford (9-7). The Catamounts face Mercer (Feb. 25), which is tied for second, and Furman (Feb. 28), which is tied for fourth-place, over its final two games.
 
WCU earned a regular-season split with UNCG, which the Catamounts are tied with and two games clear of Chattanooga and The Citadel.

Finishing in sixth-place or better nets an opening-round bye, while seventh and below open tournament play on Friday evening in Asheville on March 6.

Scouting the Opposition:
Mercer (18-11, 10-6 SoCon) begins play on Wednesday, having won three of four, including an 89-86 decision over Samford at home last time out. The Bears have struggled away from Hawkins Arena thus far in the 2025-26 season, holding a 5-10 mark on the road, compared to a 13-1 mark at home.

Memphis transfer junior Baraka Okojie leads the Bears at 19.6 points per game, second in the SoCon in scoring. He's scored 20 or more points 13 times. Okokjie also leads the way for Mercer with 152 assists as he's tallied a trio of double-doubles along with his conference-high 5.4 assists per contest.

Central Michigan and Boston College transfer redshirt junior Armani Mighty is averaging 13.5 points per game, with three 20-point outputs. Mighty is shooting a conference-best 66.4% (154-of-232) and leading the Bears with 10.5 rebounds per game, totaling 14 double-doubles. Zaire Williams, a transfer from Wagner, rounds out the double-figure scoring for Mercer at 12.6 points per game, while totaling a team-best 64 three-pointers.

Mercer is second in the league as a team with eight steals per game and a conference-best 3.55 blocks per outing, as the Bears are paced by sophomore Brady Shoulders (1.64 steals, 2nd) and Mighty (1.83 blocks, 1st).

In conference play, Mighty is tied for the league lead with 11.7 rebounds per game and ranks second at 63.6% (84-of-132) from the field. Okojie leads the league with 5.31 assists per game and ranks second with 21.13 points per game in 16 SoCon games.  Mighty leads the league with 29 blocks.

The Bears are led by Ryan Ridder in his second season at the helm in Macon after spending three seasons apiece at both UT Martin and Bethune-Cookman, where he totaled 96 wins between his two prior stops.

Last Time vs Mercer:
Mercer used a 13-0 run out of the gates before withstanding a late charge from Western Carolina to earn an 88-76 Southern Conference victory at Hawkins Arena in the first meeting between the two back on Jan. 21.

Sophomore transfer Justin Johnson scored a team-best 14 points, with 11 coming in the second half. Redshirt junior Cord Stansberry, graduate transfer Julien Soumaoro, and freshman Tahlan Pettway each finished with 11. Stansberry buried a pair of threes and had a perfect 5-of-5 night at the foul line, while Soumaoro connected on three 3-pointers, including one to push him past the 1,000-career point threshold. Pettway buried 3-of-4 threes to round out the trio.

Series History:
Wednesday marks the 34th all-time series meeting between the two, with WCU holding a tight 17-16 lead in the head-to-head battles. Western Carolina has won 10 of the 13 previous meetings in Cullowhee (10-3), including six-straight dating back to 2020. Mercer has won three straight in the head-to-head series, two in Macon and last year in the SoCon tournament in Asheville.

Up Next:
Following Wednesday's action, the Catamounts close the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 28, with a battle against chromatic rival Furman. The game will serve as the backend of a Saturday Catamount basketball doubleheader with the women's team hosting UNCG at 3 p.m. Both games will serve as Senior Day for the two Catamount programs.
 
Saturday's action against the Paladins is slated for a 5:30 p.m. tip and 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.

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).