Feb. 21, 2008

UNC Greensboro at Western Carolina Game Notes

Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina opens its final three-game home stand on Thursday night, hosting the UNC Greensboro Spartans at 7:03 pm in the Ramsey Center. In a quirk of scheduling, tonight marks the first meeting between the two North Division rivals this season -- and is the first of two meetings within a 12-day span.

Thursday night's game will be broadcast across Western North Carolina by the Catamount Sports Network. Fans can follow all of the action live on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee or 680 AM WRGC in Sylva. Both stations also offer streaming audio options at www.WWCUFM.com and www.WRGC.com.

Fans can also follow the action with live video provided through CatamountSports.com (subscription required) or through live GameTracker (free).

The Catamounts (8-17, 4-11 SoCon) are coming off their first road win of the season after downing the College of Charleston, 65-57, last Saturday at the Kresse Arena. The win snapped a nine-game losing skid to the Cougars and was the program's first-ever win over CofC in the Lowcountry. Sophomore Brandon Giles stretched his current career-best, double-digit scoring streak to 16 games with a game-high 25 points in the victory.

UNC Greensboro (14-11, 8-8 SoCon) fell to SoCon-leading Davidson on Tuesday night, 75-66, on ESPN2. The Spartans have dropped five of their last six games with its lone win coming over North Division co-leader, Appalachian State.

WCU has played its best basketball at home this season, garnering six of its eight seasonal wins inside the friendly confines of the Ramsey Center. The Catamounts have won two-straight over UNCG at home, and seven of the last eight played in Cullowhee.

Tip-off is set for 7:03 pm.

WESTERN CAROLINA - UNC GREENSBORO SERIES:
Despite being in the final two weeks of the regular season, tonight marks the first seasonal meeting between North Division foes, Western Carolina and UNC Greensboro ... Western leads the all-time series with the Spartans, 15-13, including an 11-3 overall mark in games played in Cullowhee ... the Catamounts have won two-straight at home in the series and seven of the last eight in Ramsey ... the two squads split last season's two regular season meetings with each squad downing the other on its home court ... All told, though, UNC Greensboro has won five of the last eight meetings dating back to 2004 ... WCU head coach Larry Hunter has won three of the five meetings with UNCG since the 2005-06 season.

ABOUT THE UNC GREENSBORO SPARTANS:
The Spartans comes to Cullowhee after suffering a road defeat at Southern Conference leader, Davidson, on Tuesday night ... UNCG was the preseason favorite to win the SoCon's North Division behind all-conference senior forward, Kyle Hines ... Hines rewrote the SoCon record books for blocked shots in a career, surpassing former Catamount standout, Rans Brempong, on the career swats list ... Hines became the sixth player in NCAA history to amass 2,000 points / 1,000 rebounds / 300 blocked shots ... UNCG has three players averaging double-figures led by Hines, senior Kevin Olesksiak and sophomore Mikko Koivisto ... Greensboro is in the middle of the SoCon pack hovering around the .500 mark in league play ... the Spartans are coached by Mike Dement.

CATAMOUNTS VS. SPARTANS STORYLINES:
* Western Carolina will try and secure back-to-back wins for the first time this season coming off last Thursday's eight-point win over the College of Charleston ... the last time WCU earned consecutive wins was over a calendar year ago coming last season (Jan. 29 over Wofford in OT and Feb. 3 at The Citadel);
* Western will try for back-to-back home victories ... WCU won three-straight home games in late-December stretching into early January this season ... the Catamounts have won six times inside the friendly confines of the Ramsey Center, with three of their four conference wins coming at home;
* Three of Western's eight victories on the season have come in games played on Thursday night.

LAST SEASON VERSUS UNC GREENSBORO:
Both squads won on their home floor in the two seasonal meetings a year ago ... In Cullowhee, Western erased a 12-point second half deficit to edge the Spartans, 57-54 ... In Greensboro, the Spartans rode the charity stripe with 32 points from the free throw line in a 79-68 win without Kyle Hines who was serving a mandated one-game suspension ... Of WCU's returning players, senior Arnold Gore averaged 12 points and eight rebounds per game while sophomore Brandon Giles scored 11 in Greensboro to average 6.5 points in the two meetings ... Sophomore Jake Robinson struggled against UNCG a year ago, shooting 4-of-17 from the field including 2-of-12 (16.6%) from beyond the arc ... For UNCG, Hines only played in one of the two meetings finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds in Cullowhee - Ben Stywall averaged 9.5 points and eight rebounds versus WCU.