Western Carolina tops VMI; loses league game at Furman

Western Carolina's Ricky Gandy scored 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds in Saturday's 82-62 win over Virginia Military. - Herald photo by Mark Haskett

The Catamounts defeated Virginia Military 82-62 Saturday before 1,874 fans at the Ramsey Center before dropping a 67-47 decision Monday in front of 1,952 fans at Furman's Timmons Arena.

The split left WCU 4-18 overall and 2-7 in the Southern Conference.

Western shot a season-high 55.8 percent from the floor, including a blistering 71.4 percent from behind the three-point arc in its win over VMI.

Cory Largent scored 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the Cats Willie Freeman added 15 points, and Ricky Gandy had 13.

Freeman had a perfect shooting night as he was six of six from the floor and three of three from the line.

Leading the way for the Keydets were Jeremy Harper with 13 points and Eric Mann with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Western held a 39-30 edge on the boards and limited VMI to 37.3 percent field goal shooting.

WCU's Casey Rogers dished out five assists while Renard Phillips had four for the Keydets.

The Keydets used pressure defense in the second half to force turnovers and took advantage of WCU foul trouble for a 47-47 tie at the 14:22 left. Once Western solved the press, its hot shooting continued resulting in a 63-52 lead at the 7:21 mark.

VMI was within 69-60 with 4:04 to play. A three-point play by Largent ignited an 11-4 spurt down the stretch to preserve the win.

WCU committed 18 turnovers, and the Keydets had 14.

Completing the WCU scoring were Rogers and Kori Hatcher with nine each, Emre Atsur with eight, Rans Brempong with four and Todd Seibert with two.

Monday at Furman, the Cats fell apart down the stretch in the 67-47 loss. They were outscored 20-2 in the last four and a half minutes.

Karim Souchu scored 20 points to lead the Paladins. Kenny Zeigler scored 14, and Anthony Thomas had 12. Guilherme Da Luz added 10 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

Freeman scored 14 points, and Rogers had 11 points and seven assists for the Cats, who shot just 29.6 percent from the floor.

Furman led 27-25 at halftime, but Western was ahead as late as 38-36 the 10:09 mark on Gandy's three-pointer.

Da Luz's trey with nine minutes left put the Paladins ahead 39-38 and started a 9-2 run that ended on Souchu's trey with 6:45 on the clock.

Western trailed 47-45 after Freeman's baseline jumper with 4:40 left before Thomas' back-to-back treys started a run of 13 straight points.

Furman held a 43-39 rebounding advantage. Brempong had 10 boards for WCU.

The Paladins made 39.1 percent of their field goal tries.

The Cats turned the ball over 20 times, and Furman had 14 miscues.

Rounding out the WCU scoring were Largent with seven, Hatcher with five, Brempong with four, and Gandy and Atsur with three apiece.

Western will go to East Tennessee for a 3 p.m. game Saturday and return home to meet Appalachian State at 7 p.m. Monday.

Back to Sports: 02/01/01.