SoCon Fans

(2S) Wofford 86, (1N) Western Carolina 72

The message sent by the Wofford Terriers over the past two days at the Southern Conference Tournament is plainly apparent: Once a team learns how to nail down a championship, it is much easier to rise to the occasion in a pressure-packed setting. A team that wobbled in the earlier part of its college basketball season is now playing the best basketball in its own neck of the woods.

Wofford will be returning to the Southern Conference championship game on Monday in an attempt to repeat as league champion after dispatching the Western Carolina Catamounts on Sunday night. Wofford laid waste to a higher-seeded opponent, storming to a relatively easy double-digit win and putting itself in position to reach the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons. With just one more win in the SoCon final, Wofford will affirm its place as one of the SoCon’s better teams in recent memory. What the College of Charleston became in the late 1990s and Davidson proved to be in the Stephen Curry years is what Wofford is on the verge of becoming. It’s all because a talented team smells the familiar scent of the finish line at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Terriers have improved throughout the course of the season: Nine of their 12 losses came before the middle of January, but the sons of Spartanburg, South Carolina, entered the SoCon tournament on a seven-game winning streak, including impressive wins at Chattanooga and Furman to end the regular season. It’s clear that the postseason has only enhanced Wofford’s winning ways. This team is breathing confidence in every aspect of competition.

Wofford played like a defending champion, displaying poise and determination, while the Catamounts simply appeared beaten and dispirited. Terrier head coach Mike Young, in his 22nd year as a part of the Wofford program (his eighth as head coach) will be looking for his second conference title.

The Catamounts jumped to an early five-point lead, but Wofford found the hot hand and hit 59 percent of its shots in the first half, and 54 percent for the game to knock off the North division top seed. Noah Dahlman scored 18 points with a strong inside presence to lead the Terriers, followed by Cameron Rundles and Jamar Diggs with 17 points (Diggs added seven rebounds). Wofford out-rebounded Western Carolina 37 to 27. Wofford led by as many as 16 points in the waning moments of regulation time. The third seed from the South Division (which clearly established superiority to the North in this tournament) delivered a decisive second half in which it ran roughshod through Western Carolina’s overwhelmed defense.

Mike Williams led the Catamounts with 25 points, hitting 11 of his 22 attempts from the field. Harouna Mutombo had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Western Carolina as well. Those were both impressive efforts when viewed in isolation, but WCU’s team performance was sorely lacking against the well-oiled precision of the Wofford attack. Western Carolina’s head coach, Larry Hunter, missed a milestone 600th career victory with the disappointing loss for his team, which caught and passed Chattanooga in the North race, only to come crashing to earth in this one-sided semifinal.

Wofford will play the College of Charleston in the conference championship on Monday night at 9:05 p.m. Eastern. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer