February 10, 2002

Charleston, SC - With just four games remaining in the regular-season, The Citadel finds itself in a tie with Georgia Southern in the South Division of the Southern Conference. The Bulldogs and Eagles are one game behind division leaders College of Charleston and Chattanooga.

The brief and crucial four-game season begins Monday night at McAlister Field House when the Furman Paladins meet the Bulldogs for the 175th time. Furman holds a 97-77 margin in the series that began in 1920. The Citadel is 11-1 at home this season, and has won 15 of the last 16 home contests.

The Citadel (14-9 and 6-6 in the SoCon) is coming off an 81-68 loss at defending conference champion UNC Greensboro on the road Saturday night, a game in which the Bulldogs sent the Spartans to the line 39 times. Furman (12-11 overall and 5-7 in the league) is coming off a 68-67 upset of Chattanooga in the Timmons Arena Saturday night, claiming a season's sweep of the Mocs.

Coach Pat Dennis, having used a variety of starters throughout the season, has settled on the starting five of Travis Cantrell (17.5 ppg) and Erick Wilson (3.0) at guards, Cliff Washburn (11.0, 7.0 rpg) and Alan Puckett (7.4) at forwards and Gregg Jones (5.8) in the middle. Michael Joseph (11.6), who tied his career-high of 22 points in the loss at UNCG, will come off the bench.

Washburn grabbed his 600th career rebound at UNCG and is now just 29 points shy of 1,000 for his career. Should he get his 1,000th point, that would give The Citadel three 1,000-point scorers on the same floor (Cantrell and Puckett are the others), the first time since the 1959-60 season when Coach Norm Sloan's "Blitz Kids" of Ray Graves, Art Musselman and Dick Wherry did it.

Coach Larry Davis, meanwhile, will counter with Anthony Thomas (15.2), Guilherme Da Luz (12.4) and Paul Foster (2.8) in his three-guard offense, and Kenny Zeigler (10.2) and Paco Gonzalez (5.9) at forwards. The Paladins' top scorer, Karim Souchu (16.3), will come off the bench.

After the Furman game, The Citadel has a rugged road trip with a showdown with Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Ga., on Saturday and then playing at military-rival VMI in Lexington, Va., on Monday night. The regular-season closes out on Feb. 23 when Wofford comes to McAlister Field House for a 1 p.m. tipoff.