Game #14: East Tennessee State

Day: Saturday
Date: January 2, 2016
Location: Cullowhee, NC (Ramsey Center)
Time: 2:00 p.m. EST
TV / Video: SoCon Digital Network
Radio: Catamount Sports Network  (Gary Ayers and Daniel Hooker)

The Series:  In a series that began in 1947, the Catamounts are 24-44 all time against the Bucs. The Cats are 16-35 in conference play, and 14-20 in games played in Cullowhee. The Cats dropped both conference games to  ETSU last season, however, in the conference tournament held in Asheville last March, Western broke a 17 game losing streak that stretched back to the 1998 season, beating the Bucs by a final score of 67-61.

Game Notes:       Western Carolina       -        East Tennessee State   


The Bucs travel over the mountains to meet the Cats in what will be conference openers for both teams.  ETSU is 6-6 overall record, and are 5-1 at home, and 1-5 in games on the road.  Like Western, the Bucs played an out-of-conference game on Wednesday night, in that game the Bucs beat Morehead State by a final score of 76-73.   If you'll recall, Western played  Morehead State as part of the Gotham Classic back on December 20th, losing to the Eagles on the road, 52-60.

As a team, the Bucs are scoring 77.8 points per game, while giving up an average of 75.0 points. ETSU is averaging 44.9% of the field goals attempted, while hitting 34.4% past the arc, making an average of 7 three-pointers per game. At the free throw line, the Bucs are hitting 72.1%  of their shots. ETSU is committing 13.3 turnovers per game and averaging 7.2 steals. Individually, the Bucs have two players averaging scoring in double figures.  Senior guard Ge'Lawn Guyn (6'2" 180) leads scoring with 18.4 ppg, followed by junior guard T.J. Cromer (6'3" 190) with 14.3 ppg.

Realtime RPI projects an 83-71 home court victory for the Cats.


Probable Buc Starters
T.J. Cromer - G Jr. 6-3, 190 - 14.3 ppg
Petey McClain - G Sr. 6-0, 185 - 2.4 ppg
Ge’Lawn Guyn - G Sr. 6-2, 185 - 18.4 ppg
Peter Jurkin - C Jr. 7-0, 230 - 5.1 ppg
A.J. Merriweather - G Jr. 6-2, 185 - 9.5 ppg

Current SoCon Standings

Basketball (M)	Conference	Overall
Chattanooga	0 - 0	11 - 2
Mercer	0 - 0	10 - 3
Samford	0 - 0	9 - 4
The Citadel	0 - 0	7 - 6
ETSU	0 - 0	6 - 6
Furman	0 - 0	6 - 7
VMI	0 - 0	5 - 6
Western Carolina	0 - 0	5 - 8
UNCG	0 - 0	4 - 9
Wofford	0 - 0	3 - 8

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