Bulldogs Head to Western Carolina for First Meeting of Season with Catamounts

Final	1	2	T
The Citadel (4-22, 1-14 SoCon)	23	30	53
Western Carolina (11-17,5-10 SoCon)	36	34	70
Cullowhee, N.C. (Ramsey Center)

The Citadel	Western Carolina
Pts: Mike Groselle - 17	Pts: MUTOMBO, Harouna - 24
Reb: Mike Groselle - 10	Reb: KING, Tawaski - 15
Ast: Lawrence Miller - 4	Ast: MUTOMBO, Harouna - 4

Team Statistics	The Citadel	Western Carolina
Field Goal %	38.0% (19-50 )	37.8% (28-74 )
Rebounds	27	55
Assists	12	8
Turnovers	17	16
Pts off Turnovers	14	17
2nd Chance Pts	6	22
Pts in the Paint	26	20
Fastbreak Pts	4	2
Bench Pts	23	10

full stats

The Citadel at Western Carolina Game Notes

Charleston, S.C. — The Citadel begins its final regular season road trip of the 2011-12 campaign when the team heads to Cullowhee to face Western Carolina on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m.

The Bulldogs (4-21, 1-13 SoCon) hold a 34-26 edge in the all-time series between the two schools and have a five-game winning streak dating back to the 2008-09 season. Western Carolina (10-17, 4-10 SoCon) has lost three straight games after edging Chattanooga, 82-76, on Feb. 2.

OVERTIME ANOMALY: The Citadel has appeared in 74 overtime games over the course of its 101-year history, dating back to the 1918-19 season. The Dogs have a 35-39 all-time record in their overtime games.

This season marks the 22nd time in program history that the Bulldogs have endured multiple overtime games in a single season and first with three or more overtime sessions since the 2001-02 campaign. However, prior to the slim 73-72 overtime downing at the hands of Georgia Southern on Feb. 11, The Citadel had never lost overtime games to the same team in a single season.

LETHAL COMBOS: The tandem of Lawrence Miller and Ashton Moore, who have hit 35 and 31 3-pointers, respectively, recently became the sixth set of Citadel teammates to hit 30 or more 3-pointers in their freshmen year since the full-time institution of the 3-point line in the 1986-87 season.

Miller and Moore are the first teammates since Austin Dahn (79), Zach Urbanus (73) and Tyrell McDowell (38), who accomplished the feat during the 2007-08 season, to knock down at least 30 treys in their rookie season.

THE SERIES WITH WESTERN CAROLINA:

371 and counting: Before Ashton Moore's perfect 10-of-10 outing from the charity stripe against Georgia Southern it had been 371 days since a Citadel player converted 10 or more free throws. The last player, prior to Moore, was Cameron Wells who knocked down all 10 free throws against Wofford on Feb. 5, 2011.

Coincidentally, Moore also became the first Bulldog freshman since Wells to convert 10 free throws in a game. Wells finished 10-for-13 from the line in a 98-68 loss to Georgia Southern on Feb. 20, 2008.

DRAWING THE FOUL: Since the 2001-02 season The Citadel has hit 20 free throws or more in a single game on 41 separate occasions. The Bulldogs have a record of 30-11 in those games, including an 11-game winning streak that spanned from Nov. 9, 2007 to Jan. 26, 2011.

This season the Dogs have converted 20 free throws against VMI (25), Army (24) and most recently Georgia Southern (22). That is just one shy of the 2010-11 mark, when the team hit 20 free throws against High Point (20), Chowan (20), Davidson (22) and Wofford (25).

However, the 2001-02 squad hit at least 20 free throws on 12 different occasions, the most of any team over the past decade.

FRESHMAN TANDEM OF MOORE AND ROBERTSON LEAD BULLDOGS IN TOUGH 73-72 OVERTIME LOSS TO GEORGIA SOUTHERN: Citadel freshmen Ashton Moore scored a game-high 24 points and Jordan Robertson added a career-high 10 rebounds, but it was an Georgia Southern's Willie Powers who made the difference in the Eagles 73-72 overtime victory at McAlister Field House on Saturday evening.

Moore scored his 24 points by hitting 6-of-16 from the field, including a pair from 3-point range, and finished a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. He became the first Bulldog, since Cameron Wells hit 11 against Wofford on Feb. 5, 2011, to convert 10 free throw attempts. Joining Moore with solid outings were Mike Groselle (10 pts.) and Marshall Harris III (9 pts.).  Harris III narrowly missed the fourth double-digit performance of his career by hitting 3-of-7 from the floor to go along with three free throws. Groselle chimed in with a 4-of-6 performance and pulled down six rebounds. Robertson led the team with 10 rebounds, four on the offensive glass, to give the Dogs a 41-31 edge on the boards. That allowed the Cadets to finish with a 40-38 advantage in the paint and outscore the Eagles 18-11 in second chance points. The loss drops The Citadel to 4-21 overall and 1-13 in the Southern Conference.

Sophomore Eric Ferguson's 14 points led four Georgia Southern players in scoring. Also eclipsing the double figure plateau for the Eagles were Powers (13 pts.), Ben Drayton (13 pts.) and Cameron Baskerville (10 pts.). Ferguson hit a game-high seven field goals, with Powers and Drayton finishing with six apiece. Georgia Southern (13-12, 11-4) finished the game by hitting 32-of-65 (49.2%) from the floor, despite being limited to 3-of-14 (21.4%) by a tenacious Citadel defense. Sophomore Jelani Hewitt climbed the glass for a team-best nine rebounds, three coming on the offensive end. Powers proved to be the catalyst for Georgia Southern, dishing out six assists and forcing four steals.

PREVIEWING THE COMPETITION: Western Carolina (10-17 Overall/4-10 SoCon)

LATE CATAMOUNT RALLY FALLS SHORT OF FURMAN: Western Carolina erased all but seven points of a 27-point second half deficit against the hot-shooting Furman Paladins on Saturday, Feb. 11, falling 80-66 in Southern Conference action at the Timmons Arena.

Furman, which snapped a two-game losing skid, shot 54-percent (27 of 50) from the floor including a season-best 11-of-20 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc to halt the Catamounts' two-game road win streak in the series.

Sophomore Tawaski King led five Catamounts in double figures with 14 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting from the field. Harouna Mutombo scored 13 points and Brandon Boggs - playing in his hometown - scored a dozen. Trey Sumler stretched his current double-digit scoring streak to a career-long 10-straight games with 10 points, matched by classmate Ishmael Hollis with 10 points, six rebounds and three steals off the bench for WCU.

Charlie Reddick, who drained the game-winning 3-pointer that propelled Furman to the victory in Cullowhee back in mid-January, scored 16 points to lead the Paladins (13-13, 7-8 SoCon). Bryant Irwin added 14 points including four 3-pointers while Bobby Austin had 12 and Jordan Loyd finished with nine points for the Paladins.

Including a buzzer-beating long-range 3-pointer by Reddick to end the first half which gave the Paladins a 14-point, 38-24, halftime lead, Furman capitalized on a combined 16-0 run to build a 27-point advantage early in the second half. The home squad scored the first 13 points of the second half before King ended WCU's drought with a hook-shot in the paint at the 15:28 mark.

The Paladins maintained a 60-37 advantage with just under 10 minutes remaining when Mutombo took over for the Catamounts. The senior from Pickering, Ontario, scored nine points in a 20-to-4 Catamount run as WCU turned up the intensity and trimmed the Furman lead to seven, 64-57, on his driving layup with 4:42 left.

However, Furman regained its composure as senior post Brandon Sebirumbi - who was limited to just eight points on the afternoon - scored in the paint on the next possession, grabbed a rebound off of a Western Carolina miss and converted on a pair of free throws on the other end with 3:36 to play to push the Paladin lead to 68-57. Richard Brown then scored eight points over the final three minutes to increase the Furman lead to 80-62 before the final 14-point tally.

Western Carolina managed to out-rebound the Paladins, 35-to-32, but was held to just 2-of-18 shooting from 3-point range.

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