Dec. 13, 2009

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Louisville, Ky. - Mike Williams scored 22 of his career-high 24 points in the second half while Jake Robinson buried six 3-pointers as a part of his 23-point performance as Western Carolina stunned a near-capacity crowd at Freedom Hall with a 91-83 road victory over the Louisville Cardinals, extending its current winning streak to nine.

Western Carolina's bench scored a combined 51 points, outscoring the Cards' reserves 51-to-22 as the Catamounts earned their first-ever win over Louisville (1-1) and a Big East opponent (1-11).

With Louisville within three, 66-63, with 5:33 to play and the raucous, red-and-black crowd back into the game, Robinson buried 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to run the lead back to double figures. The Cardinals would only manage to trim the deficit down to six, 84-78, inside the final minutes as WCU held on from the free throw line.

"This was a really good win for our basketball team and I'm really proud of and happy for our guys," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter during post-game comments. "We have a veteran team and they've been through the other end of this. They've earned it. It's a good group with great chemistry and its something we can continue to build upon."

Hunter added, "I know we caught Louisville at a really good time. They've got injuries. I talked to (Coach Rick Pitino) before the game and it's tough. It's really tough out there when you're hurt, people playing with bad wrists and those kind of things. But they competed tonight. I thought both teams competed really well and we're not a bad basketball team. It's a very good road win for us."

In addition to Williams and Robinson, Richie Gordon and Brigham Waginger each finished with 13 points apiece with Gordon leading the team with six rebounds. Waginger dished out six assists and made four steals to move into a tie for first on the school's career chart with WCU Hall of Famer, Henry Logan, with 221 career thefts.

Brandon Giles rounded out WCU's double-digit scorers, finishing with 10 points including two, 3-pointers.

Tied at five early in the first half, Western Carolina (10-1) outscored the Cardinals 15-to-6 over the next eight minutes to take its largest lead of the opening stanza at 10, 21-11, with eight minutes remaining until the break. But Louisville chipped away at the Catamount advantage, trimming it to two, 31-29, inside the final minute of the half.

Waginger hit a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the opening half as WCU led by five at intermission, 34-29.

Out of the halftime locker room, the Cardinals hit three, 3-pointers on three of their first four possessions to re-claim the lead by two, 38-36. The two squads traded the lead back-and-fourth five additional times before Williams, who scored eight of WCU's nine points during a three-minute span midway through the half, gave the Catamounts the lead for what proved to be for good on a jumper with 11:46 to play.

Williams also capped a 9-to-2 run with a thunderous offensive rebound slam dunk to push WCU ahead by nine, 61-52. Louisville twice cut the deficit to three, the latter on a dunk by Rakeen Buckles to make the score 66-63, setting up Robinson's heroics from long range.

The Catamounts made 11 free throws inside the final two minutes, including 7-of-8 charity tosses in the final 60 seceonds alone, to secure the win.

Louisville (5-3) matched WCU's five players in double-digit scoring as guard Edgar Sosa finished with 16 points and back-court counterpart, Knowles, finished with 15. Forward Jared Swopshire recorded 12 points, while Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings each scored 11 in the interior.

All told, Western Carolina forced Louisville into committing a season-high 21 turnovers that the Catamounts turned into 28 points.

Western Carolina will break for final exams next week, returning to action on Tuesday, Dec. 22 as the Catamounts travel to Littlejohn Coliseum to face the nationally-ranked Clemson Tigers.

Post-Game Notes:
- Western Carolina secured it's first-ever win over both Louisville (1-1) and against a Big East opponent (1-11) all-time ... the win also stretched WCU's current road win streak to four games, matching the longest such string since 1995-96 when the Catamounts won four-straight away from home;

- The win stretched the Catamounts winning streak to nine-straight and gave WCU double-digit wins at 10-1 ... It's the first-time in school history that a Catamount squad has reached double-figure wins in December ... WCU's current winning streak is its longest since winning 11-consecutive games during the 1970-71 season;

- Western Carolina scored a season-high 91 points in the road win over Louisville, while also shooting a season-best 51-percent (26-of-51) from the floor and made a season-high 29 free throws;

- WCU had five-players score in double figures in the win over Louisville, the first-time five Catamounts had reached double digits in the same game since 2007, a road loss at Furman;

- Western Carolina moved to 9-0 on the season when leading at halftime ... the Catamounts are also perfect in four games played on Saturday this season and remained unbeaten in the month of December (5-0);

- Senior Brigham Waginger recorded four steals in the road win giving him 221 for his career and moving him into a tie with WCU Hall of Famer, Henry Logan (1965-68) ... With his next steal, Waginger will become the program's all-time steals leader;

- Senior Jake Robinson made six of WCU's 10 3-pointers at Louisville, giving him 221 for his career, currently in second place on the Catamounts' career 3-point shooting charts ... the Canton, N.C., native only trails former Catamount - and current assistant coach - Anquell McCollum, who made 245 from 1993-96 ... Robinson is just 24 made 3-pointers shy of the all-time school record;

- WCU head coach Larry Hunter won career-game 569 ... He also earned his first-career victory over Louisville head coach Rick Pitino (1-3) ... the two had squared off three times previously while Hunter was at Ohio and Pitino was at Kentucky;

- Saturday's win represented the first-time since 2006 that Louisville had dropped back-to-back non-conference home games ... Louisville lost for just the seventh-time (113-7) in the past 10 years when scoring 80-plus points in a game - and for just the sixth time (83-6) under Pitino during the same span.