Cats knock off SoCon favorite, now 2-0 in conference

Photo Courtesy WCU      (by Ashley Evans)

The Catamounts (9-8, 2-0 SoCon) once again defended the home court and picked up their second Southern Conference victory defeating the preseason favorite Elon Phoenix  Saturday afternoon.  The Cats are now 8-0 in the Ramsey this season.

"[Western Carolina] played better at their system than we did at our system and they deserved to win the game today," said Elon head coach Matt Matheny. "They did a very good job of crowding us in the paint and their pressure caused us a lot of problems. It broke our rhythm and forced us into a lot of turnovers, which is very uncharacteristic for us."

Trey Sumler led all scorers with 21 points.  Sumler also pulled down four rebounds, six assists and two steals in the Cats' 74-62 win over the Phoenix in their final visit to Cullowhee and the Ramsey Center as a Southern Conference member.

Both James Sinclair and Tom Tankelewicz added 12 points each as the Cats hit 28 of 65 field goals for 43% shooting.  The Phoenix only put up a total of 44 shots in the game, hitting 20 for 45.5%.  Tankelewicz hit 4 threes and Sumler added two as the Cats hit 40% of their threes and 80% at the charity stripe (12 of 15).

The Cats only led by two at halftime, 32-30, but a 15-2 run by the Cats late in the game, sealed the victory for WCU. Defense once again was the name of the game for the Catamounts, resulting in a total of 23 turnovers by Elon, which the Cats converted to 28 points.   The Cats also out rebounded Elon 34-32.

The Phoenix had three player scoring double figures, lead by Austin Hamilton with 19 points.

The Cats will not play again until next Saturday when they will travel to Statesboro for the final time to play Georgia Southern.

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