Feb. 3, 2005
Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina men's and women's basketball teams will be featured on the Carolinas Sports Entertainment Television (C-SET) twice in the next three days.
Southern Conference men's hoops action will be televised on Thursday, February 3 on C-SET as the Western Carolina Catamounts travel to Charleston, S.C. and the John Kresse Arena to battle the College of Charleston Cougars at 7:00 p.m. Also on the C-SET airwaves, the Lady Catamounts visit Chattanooga for a rematch of last year's SoCon Championship game on Saturday, February 5 with a 7:00 pm tip.
Thursday's gamemarks the first meeting between the Cougars (13-6, 6-3) and the Catamounts (7-15, 2-7) this season. Western Carolina will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak to the Cougars that dates back to February 21, 2000.
The College of Charleston offense runs through senior guard Tony Mitchell, who is averaging 15.6 points per game. Bernard Jackson leads the way in the paint for the Cougars, ripping down 6.5 boards an outing, while averaging 10.9 points per contest.
The Cats' offensive fire comes from David Berghoefer. Berghoefer, who is coming off a 24 point performance against Furman on Monday, January 21, is WCU's top scorer with 14.4 points per game and is the top rebounder with 7.5 boards per contest. The Cross Plains, Wisc., nativetallied a career-best 29 points in thelast meeting with the Cougars, an 84-61 loss in Cullowhee back in January of 2004.Teammate Corey Muirhead is second on the team in scoring with 10.6 points an outing.
On Saturday, head coach Kellie Harper and her Lady Catamounts will battle former mentor, Wes Moore, and the Lady Mocs on C-SET. Western dropped a hard-fought battle to the Mocs earlier this season, 59-55, to extend its current losing skid to Chattanooga to four games. Western is led by senior forward Jennifer Gardner, who earned back-to-back Southern Conference Player of the Week honors, averaging a double-double with 19.6 points and 12.2 reboundsover her past five games. Senior Lori Tanner is the only other Lady Cat to average in double figures for the season at 10.6 points per game. Additionally, senior guard Sigita Maleraite has connected on eight of her last 16 3-point attempts (50%).
Harper and her husband, Jon Harper, both coached with Moore each of the past three seasons, helping Chattanooga to back-to-back-to-back SoCon crowns. They also helped recruited UTC's top players, including the defending conference player of the year, junior Katasha Brown. She is leading the Mocs with 12.7 points per game. Freshman Brooke Hand, whom Kellie Harper was very instrumental in recruiting, leads the SoCon in 3-point field goals made per game.
Launched on October 15, 2004, C-SET is a regional network that entertains the Carolinas with a comprehensive mix of live game broadcasts, event analysis, nightly sports reports, coaches shows and weekly magazine shows. Program highlights include Charlotte Bobcats and Charlotte Sting coverage, college and high schools sports, minor league baseball and hockey, outdoor sports, arena football, equestrian and extreme sports.
Check local listings or call your satellite provider for more information. Or visit C-SET online at www.c-set.tv/.
