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Western Carolina basketball team takes wins over Montreat, Liberty
Western Carolina defeated Montreat and Liberty in a pair of non-conference basketball games last week at the Ramsey Center.
Montreat
Rans Brempong scored 22 points as the Catamounts pulled away in the second half for a 94-66 victory over Montreat before 531 fans on Nov. 29.
David Berghoefer tallied 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for the Cats. Also scoring in double figures were Corey Muirhead with 12, Trey Hopkins with 11 and Antonio Russell with 10.
Western Carolina's Rans Brempong scores two of his career-high 22 points on this slam early in the second half of last week's 94-66 rout of Montreat. – WCU photo by Mark Haskett
Montreat's David Robinson led all scorers with 25 points. Noble Anthony finished with 13 points and nine rebounds while Tim Lewis had 10 points.
Western led most of the first half, but the Cavaliers reeled off nine straight points, including four by Anthony, to go up 23-20 on two free throws by Ben Griffith at the 5:45 mark.
Lunzaya Nlandu's three-point play put the Cats ahead to stay, 30-28, with 1:16 on the clock. They led 34-30 at halftime.
Ten straight points, including six by Muirhead, opened the margin to 52-39 at the 14:06 mark.
Hopkins had seven points in a 12-2 run extending the margin to 70-52 with 8:06 remaining.
The final represented the game's largest lead.
Western shot 52.3 percent from the floor, including a sizzling 64.5 percent in the second half. Montreat finished at 36.5 percent.
The Cats had a 42-28 rebounding advantage and committed 10 fewer turnovers (26-16) than the Cavs.
Hopkins dished out four assists while Russell and Nlandu both came up with four steals.
Completing the WCU scoring were Nlandu with nine, Negus McKenna with seven, Jared Outing with six and Kyle Greathouse with two.
Liberty
Berghoefer's 22 points helped the Cats to a 75-63 win over Liberty in front of 807 fans on Dec. 1. Russell added 18 and Muirhead had 11.
The Flames were led by David Dees and Larry Blair with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Western's win can be attributed in large measure to its ballhandling, which resulted in just nine turnovers while Liberty had 20.
That helped the Cats overcome 39.1 percent field goal shooting. The Flames made 45.1 percent of their attempts.
The game was close throughout the first half with neither team leading by more than four until a late flurry put Western up 32-24 on Kyle Greathouse's three-pointer at the 1:53 mark.
Liberty trimmed the gap to 32-27 at intermission.
Ten unanswered points, including four by Nlandu, pushed the lead to 52-35 on a Muirhead free throw with 10:39 to play.
Liberty came no closer than eight the rest of the way.
Brempong's nine rebounds helped the Cats to a 43-35 edge on the boards. Dees, Rell Porter and Rashad Robinson all had seven rebounds for the Flames.
Greathouse dished out five assists.
Completing the WCU scoring were Nlandu with seven, Hopkins and Brempong with six apiece and Greathouse with five.
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