GREENSBORO, N.C. – Isaiah Miller scored 28 points to lead the UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men's basketball team during its tough 81-80 setback to Western Carolina in a Southern Conference contest Wednesday night.
Miller added six rebounds, six assists, and five steals in his final career home contest. He also reached another milestone when he became the second player in SoCon history to reach 300 career steals at 7:22 p.m., joining East Tennessee State's Keith "Mister" Jennings.
The 6 foot, 1 senior was honored pregame in an emotional pregame ceremony that featured video tributes from his family and former coaches. There was also a dynamite highlight reel of Miller's career that showed on the Jumbotron.
After taking photos with his mom, Marilyn, head coach
Wes Miller and director of athletics
Kim Record, he raised his career point total to 1,851. Miller also has 303 steals.
Also reaching double figures for the Spartans were
Keyshaun Langley (15 points) and
Kaleb Hunter (10).
Mohammed Abdulsalam pulled down a career best 16 rebounds. His effort helped UNCG finish with a 49-33 rebounding advantage.
UNCG had two opportunities to take the lead in the final 10 seconds, but it wasn't meant to be as Western Carolina ended a 10-game losing streak to the Spartans.
The Catamounts got 28 points from Mason Faulkner. He gave Western Carolina the lead for good, 81-78, with a step back 3-pointer with 53 seconds remaining.
Matt Halversen and Kameron Gibson added 15 points each for the Catamounts, who made 14 3-pointers. Western Carolina was 7-of-12 from beyond the arc in the second half.
For UNCG to win the regular season championship, it must beat East Tennessee State and have Wofford knock off Furman on Saturday.
Quotable
Wes Miller on the game
"First off, give Western Carolina credit. They had a tough go of it in league play and they are a good basketball team. You saw that in their non-conference slate. Give them credit. We played well up there and had a huge victory and I thought they responded 48 hours later. They played terrific basketball. To lose a game at the buzzer hurts. But the season isn't over and there's a still a lot of basketball left. We are going to have to lick our wounds and get back to improving tomorrow and get ready for our last regular season game."
Records
Western Carolina 10-15 overall, 3-13 SoCon
UNCG 17-8, 12-5
How It Happened
- Western Carolina, which lost to UNCG by 21 points on Monday, overcame a 72-66 deficit in the final 5:23.
- The game featured three ties in the final 2:28.
- Miller scored 21 points in the second half to help UNCG overcome a 10-point deficit.
- The Spartans scored 20 of their 44 second-half points in the paint.
- The Catamounts finished the first half by scoring the last 10 points to grab a 40-36 lead at intermission.
- Langley scored 12 points in the opening half.
Inside the Numbers
- This was the fourth time this season that Miller has finished with at least six assists.
- This was the 24th time this season and 96th time in his career that Miller scored in double figures.
- This was Miller's 30th career outing of 20 or more points.
- Over the last two seasons, Angelo Allegri has had 29 games in which he's made at least two 3-pointers.
- Allegri, who finished with six points, has 113 career 3-pointers.
- This was the fourth game this season with double-digit rebounds.
- Langley made four 3-pointers and has made 10 over UNCG's last three games.
- He has scored in double figures in seven of UNCG's last eight games.
- Hunter has scored in double figures in nine of UNCG's last 13 games
- Hayden Koval blocked two shots to raise his career total to 328, which is 55th all-time in NCAA history.
- Koval also had six rebounds for the Spartans.
- UNCG had 12 offensive rebounds. Western Carolina had none.
Up Next
- The Spartans visit ETSU for a 4 p.m. showdown to conclude the regular season.
