January 25, 2003

Senior shooting guard Troy Wheless hoisted 18 points and grabbed six rebounds to help the College of Charleston defeat The Citadel, 58-44, in Southern Conference basketball action Saturday afternoon in McAlister Field House.

"There is a saying that defense wins games and we played defense very well tonight," CofC head coach Tom Herrion stated. "We held them to a low shooting percentage and were able to capitalize on the defensive end as we out rebounded them 32-23."

The Cougars held The Citadel to 26.6 percent shooting from the field and a mere 5.6 percent from behind the three-point arch. CofC didn't shoot the ball well either as they only managed a 38.3 percentage on the game.

"I thought we did a solid job defensively but Wheless was the one guy who killed us today," Citadel head coach Pat Dennis stated. "They only shot 38-percent on the game and that says a lot about our defense. We just could not score this afternoon and that is what hurt us."

Wheless led a trio of Cougars in double figures as forward Joe Weurding chimed in with 13 and forward Thomas Mobley added 11. With the victory the College of Charleston improves to 14-5 overall and 4-2 in Southern Conference action.

The loss moves The Citadel to 7-10 overall and 2-4 in the SoCon. The Bulldogs received strong performances from junior forward Max Mombollet and senior center Gregg Jones who scored 14 and 10 respectively. For Mombollet the double figure performance was his fifth consecutive and the 10th of the 2002-03 season.

The College of Charleston returns home on Monday, January 27th to take on VMI at 7:00 pm, while The Citadel takes to the road to take on first-place Chattanooga on Monday, January 27th at 7:30 pm.