ELON, N.C. -- The Elon Phoenix will look to put an end to a two-game skid when it hosts the Western Carolina Catamounts in the Southern Conference opener for both men's basketball squads on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. from Alumni Gym. Both teams enter with identical 2-3 overall record and are both coming off losses - Elon by a 79-61 margin at VCU and WCU by an 83-73 score to UNC Asheville.
This game can be heard live on 920 AM WPCM beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. and can also be heard on-line at elonphoenix.com.
Tonight marks the 81st meeting between the two teams whith Elon holding a 48-32 advantage over the first 80 tilts. Last year, the Phoenix took two of the three meetings with the Catamounts, however, Western's lone victory was the one which knocked Elon out of the SoCon Tournament. The first meeting in the series came during the 1933-34 season in which Elon earned a 42-35 win.
This is Elon's fifth season as a member of the SoCon and, in the first four years, the Phoenix has posted a 2-2 mark in league openers. This will mark just the second time that Elon has opened its conference slate at home. The other came in Elon's first year in the SoCon (2003-04) and saw the Phoenix knock off the Chattanooga Mocs by an 88-70 score. Elon's other league openers have come at College of Charleston (2004-05; L, 66-47), at Wofford (2005-06; W, 64-61) and at Davidson (2006-07; L, 86-61).
In Saturday's loss at VCU, Elon received another solid performance from junior forward Ola Atoyebi who scored 16 points. Freshman guard Chris Long added 11 markers while senior guard Brian Waters grabbed a team-best and equalled a career-high with six rebounds.
Atoyebi currently leads the Phoenix with 13.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Long is chipping in 12.8 points per outing while senior guard Montell Watson is netting 11.8 markers per contest. Adam Constantine is not far behind Atoyebi on the boards, collecting 7.4 caroms per game.
Western Carolina has earned victories over Bowling Green (63-60) and Methodist (87-76) and has lost to Cincinnati (66-64), Belmont (79-70) and UNC Asheville (83-73). The Catamounts are led by sophomore forward Nick Aldridge's 18.8 points per game while freshman forward Blake Gallagher leads the team by averaging 6.8 rebounds per game.
-- ELON --
