CHARLESTON, S.C. ­– The Citadel basketball team opened up The Southern Conference play with the top team in the league, the Western Carolina Catamounts, leaving McAlister Field House with an 80-71 win on Wednesday evening.

Winston Hill scored a season-high 19 points to go along with seven boards in just 30 minutes of play.

Madison Durr had his second-highest scoring output of the season with 17, five rebounds and three assists. Elijah Morgan and Quentin Millora-Brown rounded out the four Bulldogs in double figures with 15 and 12 respectively.

First Half:

• A 9-0 Bulldogs run put CIT ahead 9-5 at the first media timeout.
• WCU answered back with a 15-5 run to take a six-point lead, 20-14, halfway through the opening stanza before an Morgan triple made it a one-point affair, 20-19.
• The Catamounts nudged the advantage back to six, 30-24, at the under-four timeout and continued the trend into intermission as they ended the half on a 12-4 run to hold a 12-point edge, 40-28, at the intermission.

Second Half:

• A second chance opportunity for WCU led to a 3-pointer that extended the margin to nearly 20, 50-31, three minutes into the second half.
• CIT responded with a 7-2 spurt, capped off by a Durr layup, to force WCU to talk things over up 52-38 at the 14:41 mark.
• A layup and-1 by the Catamounts stretched the margin back to 19, 62-43, just over halfway through the second half.
• The Bulldogs began to chip away at the deficit before Morgan capped off a 13-3 run with a timely steal and 3-ball to trim the margin to just nine, 66-57, with 6:08 to go.
• WCU responded with a 3-pointer, to push the lead back to double-digits, 71-59, at the final media timeout as The Citadel would get as close as nine a couple of times before falling 80-71.

Up Next:

The Citadel closes out a three-game homestand on Saturday, January 6 versus Samford at 1 pm.