Men's Basketball Southern Conference

Western Carolina Announces 2002-03 Basketball Schedule

Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina head men's basketball coach Steve Shurina announced his game schedule for the 2002-03 season, which includes 13 home games and contests versus teams from the Big East Conference, the Southeastern Conference and Conference USA.

The Catamounts will open the 2002-03 schedule with home games versus Coastal Carolina and Toccoa Falls on Nov. 22 and 23, respectively, followed by a home game with Southeastern College on Nov. 30. Western will play its first road game on Dec. 2 in its annual battle with region foe UNC Asheville at the Asheville Civic Center.

Western will use the month of December to prepare for the upcoming Southern Conference portion of its schedule with road games at West Virginia (Dec. 18), Marshall (Dec. 20), Tennessee (Dec. 23) and DePaul (Dec. 31). The Cats will open the 2003 SoCon schedule with a home contest versus VMI on Jan. 5, which will be the last time the Keydets will play in the Ramsey Center as a SoCon member. Western will then play four of its next five on the road with its lone home game in the span being a Jan. 21 meeting with Appalachian State. WCU will wrap up the regular season with three consecutive home games, including East Tennessee State (Feb. 22), Wofford (Feb. 24) and Chattanooga (March 1). The annual SoCon Championship will be held from March 5-8 in Charleston, S.C., at the North Charleston Coliseum.

"We feel like we have once again put together a challenging schedule, especially with some tough road games heading into Southern Conference play," Shurina said. "Hopefully our team, which will be young and inexperienced, will be road tested and ready for conference play."