Game #29 - The Citadel

Back on January 25, the Cats traveled to Charleston to play the Bulldogs, and came away with a big road win.  The Catamounts are now coming off probably their biggest road win of the season for Catamount fans, sweeping the hated Appalachian State Mountaineers in Boone.  Have no doubt, game number 2 against The Citadel is a trap game for the Catamounts.

This game will make the 67th all-time meeting between the two teams, and the Bulldogs have won only 13 time in Cullowhee during that period. Western Carolina has now won five of their last six games and is 4-1 in the month of February. The Catamounts are led by Trey Sumler (17.7 ppg), Brandon Boggs (11.5) and James Sinclair (11.2).

Currently sitting in 5th place and just securing at least the #5 seed and bye in the upcoming SoCon tournament, the Cats need to win out in their attempt to secure either a 2 or 3 seed in the tournament.  Should the Cats remain a four or five seed, they will probably play Elon in their first game, and the Cats just do not match up well with the Elon.  Also, as a four or five seed, the Cats would also face Davidson in the quarterfinals.  I'd much rather face the Wildcats in the finals, for a little pay back.

When the Cats first played the Bulldogs, they were 4-17, 0-6 SoCon. They are now 4-24, and 0-13 in conference play and more frustrated than ever. The Citadel has been competitive in their conference games this season, but just have not been able to get over the hump for one reason or another.  I'm expecting them to pick up that win, they have WCU on the road and both Samford and Georgia Southern at home to conclude the regular season.  I'm sure the Bulldogs will be more than ready to avenge their 18 point home loss to the Catamounts.

Currently the Citadel sits in 10th place in conference play in scoring offense with 66.5 points per game, and in 10th place in scoring defense as well, giving up 75.2 points per game.  A stat that will be in the Citadel's favor, they are in second place in free throw percentages, hitting 71.9% at the charity strip as a team.  This is big, as the Cats sent the Mountaineers to the charity strip for 33 attempts, off 25 personal fouls, however ASU only converted on 16 of those attempts.

The Bulldogs have three players scoring in double figures, Matt Van Scyoc leads with 14.2 ppg, current SoCon player of the week Ashton Moore is averaging 12.9, followed by Brian White with 12.0 ppg. Moore scored a career-high 35-point outing against Davidson last Monday night. he averaged 28.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals while shooting 53 percent from the field as the Bulldogs suffered losses to Furman and Davidson last week.

Charts Courtesy Daily Catamount 

RealTime RPI projects a 19 point Catamount win, 85-66

RPI:                              Sagarin:                            Pomeroy:                     Massey:
WCU - 214                      WCU  -  234                      WCU -  231                   WCU -  223
Citadel - 345                    Citadel -  348                    Citadel - 350                  Citadel - 351


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