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 Sophomore guard Brandon Giles is averaging a team-best 16.0 points per game at home this season. |
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Dec. 26, 2007
Western Carolina vs. Presbyterian Game Notes 
Cullowhee, N.C. - Fresh off a trip through the heart of Big Ten Conference country and the Christmas holiday, the Western Carolina men's basketball team returns to action this Thursday, Dec. 27 by hosting the reclassifying Presbyterian College Blue Hose in the Ramsey Center. Tip-off for the non-conference tilt is set for 7:03 pm.
Thursday's game will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network and will only be heard in Western North Carolina on WWCU-Cullowhee, Power 90dot5. (Due to unforseen circumstances, the game will NOT be aired online). Air time is set for 6:45 pm with Gary Ayers on the call. Fans can also follow all of the action on live GameTracer, presented by Carolina West Sports Medicine and West Care Health System, by logging on to CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina (3-7) will try and win its second-straight home non-conference game against a squad making the jump to the NCAA Division I level. The Catamounts downed North Carolina Central by 20, 84-64, back on Dec. 5 to mark both its last victory and the win over a reclassifying squad. WCU is 2-2 at home this season with wins over NCCU and Methodist, with home losses to UNC Asheville and a heart-breaking, two-point defeat to the College of Charleston.
Much like the NCCU Eagles, Presbyterian (1-14) has played a predominantly road schedule this season. The Blue Hose are 0-14 away from Clinton, S.C., this season including 12 official road losses and two in neutral court contests. PC's lone victory of the season came at home against Radford on Dec. 1, upending their future Big South Conference mate by two, 62-60, to avenge a 14-point road loss to the Highlanders in mid-November.
Not only have the Blue Hose have played away from home, they have also chalked up some miles this season with road contests to date ranging from Virginia (Radford, Liberty), Nebraska, New Mexico, New York (Army), Florida (Central Florida), Ohio (Ohio State) and a three-game swing through California (UC-Davis, Fresno State and San Jose State). Presbyterian's schedule includes four ACC opponents, two from the SEC and five against future conference Big South foes.
Presbyterian has two players averaging double-digit scoring in Pat Kiscaden (11.0 ppg) and Al'lonzo Coleman (10.3), with Coleman leading the squad in rebounding at 5.1 boards per game. Collectively, PC is only averaging 56.7 points per game, outscored by an average of 15.8 points per game (opponents average 72.5 ppg).
Western is looking to bounce back from a pair of road losses prior to the holiday at #13 Indiana (100-52) and #38 Illinois (58-35). In the latter, the Catamounts were held to their lowest point total in 45 years since only scoring 30 in a win over Guilford during the 1963-64 season. WCU shot a season-low 27-percent from the floor, but countered by limiting the Illini to an opponent-low 58 points.
The Catamounts' two leading scorers traded that role over the past two ball games as freshman Michael Porrini (13.0 ppg) tallied a career-best 20 points while guarding one of the top rookies in the nation - Indiana's Eric Gordon - in Bloomington back on Dec. 15. Two days later, sophomore Brandon Giles (11.1 ppg) was the lone Catamount to reach double figures with 13 in the road loss at Illinois. Freshman Blake Gallagher and Porrini share the bulk of the rebounding load for WCU entering the game as Gallagher leads the team at 6.9 rebounds per game with his backcourt classmate right on his heels at 6.4 rpg.
Both squads enter the game Thursday looking to snap losing skids as PC has dropped six-straight while Western has lost back-to-back games - and five of its last six - since starting the year at 2-2.
Tip-off from the Ramsey Center is set for 7:03 pm.
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