Mike Williams scored 13 points and Western Carolina pulled away in the final minutes to beat Samford 62-50 on Saturday.
Leading 51-49 with 3:42 to play, the Catamounts (17-5, 7-3 Southern Conference) closed the game on an 11-1 run. Samford went the final 5:31 without a field goal.
The Catamounts led 32-19 at halftime and scored the first basket of the second half. But the Bulldogs (9-13, 3-7) responded with a 20-5 run to tie the game 39-39 on a layup by Jeffrey Merritt with 8:51 remaining. The Catamounts got 23 points from their bench, compared to 13 from Samford.
Led by Williams who made 6 of 11 field goals, the Catamounts shot 52.4 percent from the field (22-of-42) compared to 45.2 percent (14-for-31) for the Bulldogs.
Josh Davis led the Bulldogs, who lost their third in a row, with 11 points, and Bryan Friday and John Peterson each scored 10 points.
