February 15, 2002
Hungry for a win, The Citadel will take to the road with back-to-back games with Georgia Southern and military rival VMI.
The Bulldogs meet the Eagles Saturday at 2 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro, Ga., and will then play Monday night at 7 p.m. in Cameron Hall in Lexington, Va.
The lengthy road trip begins Friday afternoon as the team departs from McAlister Field House at 5:15 p.m. After the Georgia Southern game Saturday afternoon, the Bulldogs will bus straight to Lexington. The team will practice at VMI Sunday afternoon and will depart Lexington for Charleston immediately after Monday night's game.
The Citadel (14-10 overall and 6-7 in the league) has dropped six of the last seven games and are knotted with the Eagles for third place in the South Division of the Southern Conference. Georgia Southern, which was picked first in the preseason polls, are 13-11 overall and 6-7 in the conference. Both teams still have a chance at the top two spots in the South Division, which will mean a first-round bye in the upcoming tournament, and both are eager to break the logjam.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 70-64 overtime loss to Furman Monday night in McAlister Field House while Georgia Southern is coming off a 64-56 loss at Davidson Wednesday night at the Belk Arena.
Travis Cantrell continues to pace the Bulldogs in scoring with a 17.4 average. Cliff Washburn, who already owns eighth place on the school's all-time rebounding chart with 606, is 29 points shy of 1,000 for his career. Should he reach that plateau, it would give The Citadel three 1,000-point scorers on the floor at the same time, the first that has happened since Norm Sloan's 1959-60 team when Art Musselman, Dick Wherry and Ray Graves were the first to do it.
Georgia Southern is paced by two quality guards in Sean Peterson (16.4 ppg) and Julius Jenkins (15.0), along with big-man Kashien Latham (11.1, 9.0 rpg).
The Citadel defeated Georgia Southern, 85-80, in Charleston on Jan. 14.
Monday night, The Citadel will face VMI for the only time during the regular season. VMI (9-15, 4-9) features redshirt freshman Jason Conley, who currently leads the NCAA in scoring with over 29 points per game.
