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Georgia Southern downs Catamounts

By Carey Phillips
Georgia Southern never trailed en route to a 92-83 victory over Western Carolina Saturday before 2,230 fans at GSU.

Hamp Jones scored 22 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead the Eagles. Julius Jenkins added 17 points while DeMarlo Slocum netted 14 and Donta Humphries had 11.

WCU's Cory Largent led all scorers with 23 points. Casey Rogers finished with 18, and Jarvis Hayes had 17 as Western fell to 9-10 overall and 2-6 in the North Division of the Southern Conference.

GSU broke from the gate in a hurry by taking a 14-4 lead with 14:53 left in the first half. Jenkins had seven of the points.

Largent's six points keyed a 13-3 run for a 17-17 tie at the 7:30 mark.

Slocum's jumper with 6:26 on the clock put the Eagles in front 21-19. Two free throws by Jones with 4:16 to play made it 30-22, and they led 38-31 at intermission.

Nine straight points, including four by Hayes, early in the second half pulled Western into a 40-40 tie at the 18:27 mark. Kashien Lathan's dunk 10 seconds later put the Eagles on top to stay 42-40.

A 10-2 spurt, including five by Humphries, built the lead to 56-44 five minutes into the second half. The game's biggest margin was 62-49 on Slocum's jumper at the 10:44 mark.

Consecutive three-pointers by Rogers cut the gap to 71-67 with 6:49 on the clock.

The Catamounts were still within 80-75 on Largent's layup with 3:03 remaining.

Humphries answered with a three-pointer at the 2:30 mark for an 83-75 advantage. Slocum's three-point play with 57 seconds left made it 86-77, and the Eagles were home free.

Dondrell Whitmore's 10 rebounds helped the Cats to a 48-39 advantage on the boards The Eagles shot 49.3 percent from the floor compared to WCU's 44 percent.

Western committed 18 turnovers, and GSU had 14.

Completing the WCU scoring were Whitmore with eight, Jonas Hayes with six, Colin Kearns with five and Ricky Gandy and Kori Hatcher with three each.

The Cats were scheduled to play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at East Tennessee in a game to be televised by Fox Sports Net South. They will go to Virginia Military for a 1 p.m. contest Saturday and return home Monday to face Furman at 7 p.m.

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