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Georgia Southern brings Western season to an end
Western Carolina’s men’s basketball team saw its season come to an end March 2 with a 69-57 loss to Georgia Southern in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament at Chattanooga, Tenn.
The Catamounts (8-22) finished with the second most losses in school history. Only the 2000-01 squad, which went 6-25, lost more. Both of those teams were coached by Steve Shurina, who has one year remaining on his contract.
Shurina’s contract was extended after last season by Athletic Director Jeff Compher, the man who had hired him. Compher left shortly thereafter for an associate AD position at Washington.
In last week’s game, the Eagles built a 35-23 halftime lead and held on for the win. They were led by Elton Nesbitt with 14 points. Jean Francois followed with 13, and Louis Graham had 10.
Rans Brempong paced the Cats with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Trey Hopkins added 11 points.
Western led 14-10 on Lunzaya Nlandu’s layup with 15 minutes to play before GSU went on a 15-2 run to take control. Francois and Courtney Joseph both had four in the spurt for a 25-16 advantage on Nesbitt’s layup at the 7:24 mark.
WCU trailed by seven early in the second half, but the margin never dipped into single digits after two foul shots by Francois made it 41-30 with 14:47 to go.
The game’s biggest lead was 53-34 on a Nesbitt layup with 6:33 on the clock.
Both teams struggled from the floor with GSU hitting 37.5 percent of its field goal tries while the Cats made 32.3 percent.
The squads battled to a 42-42 standoff on the boards. Donte Gennie led the Eagles with nine.
Western was hurt by 22 turnovers while GSU had 13.
Completing the WCU scoring were Negus McKenna and Terrence Woodyard with seven apiece, Antonio Russell with six, Kyle Greathosue with five, and Nlandu and David Berghoefer both with four.
Berghoefer was the only Cat to receive all-conference honors as he was named third team by the media.
Hopkins was chosen for the coaches’ all-freshman team.
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