WCU hoops teams have nice weekend
(Update: First national RPI rankings of the season put Western at 28th nationally)
After finishing the Great Alaska Shootout a week ago with a win over Mid-American Conference member Northern Illinois, the Cats ducked back into the MAC this weekend and took an 89-84 overtime win at Kent State – a program that won 28 games last year and has won more than 20 games for 10 straight seasons.
Coach Larry Hunter is getting solid performances from several players, and his bench is running deep. Western gets this week off for exams, then comes back with games against Tennessee Wesleyan and Gardner-Webb. It’s reasonable to see Western being 6-2 going into its next big challenge: a trip back in to the Big East with a visit to Marquette (currently 7-1). Western opened the season with an 81-55 loss at #2 UConn of the Big East.
Game story from the Kent Sports Report
Game story from Cleveland Plain Dealer
Game story from the Akron Beacon Journal
Western’s Lady Catamounts had a rough time last week. A mauling at UT a couple of weeks ago was followed by unexpected losses at Montana State and UNCA, and coach Kellie Harper’s Cats were on the ropes. Despite a fine recruiting class and a transfer, the Cats seemed to be having trouble adapting to the loss of four starters to graduation.
Lauren Powell
Then into Cullowhee rode Middle Tennessee State, a tough mid-major with whom Western split a couple of emotional contests last year. Although MTSU had absorbed a 20-point loss to Louisville Thursday, they’d put together four straight W’s before that, with wins over Indiana, Chattanooga, LSU and Arizona.
The result? A strong, 69-58 WCU victory in which Western led most of the way.
Interestingly, the Blue Raiders came into the game talking some in the media about “payback”, which seemed odd, given the absolute thrashing they gave Western in last season’s post-season NIT. As it turns out, MTSU held Western responsible, by way of the Catamount’s early season win last year at Murfreesboro, for knocking MTSU out of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament last year. They were determined not to let that happen again.
Whoops.
The Cats got a breakout 25-point performance from sophomore Emily Clarke, and won the battle of the boards decisively. Harper, who usually spreads the minutes around, kept her four freshmen seated for this one. Junior point guard Jessica Jackson, a transfer from South Florida, continued to struggle, handing out four assists but losing 6 turnovers. She has 24 assists and 30 turnovers on the season. On the bright side, sophomore guard Kendra Carroll, who didn’t see a ton of time as a freshman, is showing confidence and scoring ability off the bench. A Lauren Powell three-pointer early in the second half gave her the WCU career record in that category.
Western opens SoCon play next time out, as they face the Davidson Wildcats on the 14th.
Game story from the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal
Tags: Catamounts, great alaska shootout, kellie harper, lady catamounts, larry hunter, WCU basketball, Western Carolina University sports notes
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