Brandon Giles scored 25 points and Arnold Gore added 14 points to lead Western Carolina to a 65-57 Southern Conference win over the College of Charleston before 3,104 at John Kresse Arena on Saturday.

With the win, the Catamounts improved to 8-17 overall and 4-11 in league play.  The Cougars fell to 12-14 and 7-9.  College of Charleston is at Elon at 7:00 on Wednesday while WCU plays host to UNC Greensboro at 7:05 on Thursday.

Giles tallied 11 points and the Catamounts closed the opening half on a 11-5 run to take a 30-27 lead at intermission.

In the second half, Charleston capped a 9-2 run with a couples of free throws by Marcus Hammond to take a 36-32 lead with 14:05 left.  WCU battled back and eventually built a 42-38 lead with 9:49 remaining.

A dunk by Charleston's Donavan Monroe capped a 7-0 outburst and gave the Cougars a 45-42 lead with 8:36 left. But, a layup by Gore and two free throws from Giles gave Western Carolina the lead for good at 46-45 with 7:19 left.

WCU eventually stretched its lead to 54-45 with 4:27 remaining.  Charleston answered with an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 54-53 with 2:43 left, but the Catamounts answered with a pair of jumpers by Giles and WCU connected on 9-of-10 free throw attempts over the final 29 seconds to secure its first-ever win at Kresse Arena in seven tries.

Jake Robinson added 13 points off the bench for the Catamounts including three 3-pointers.  WCU held a 24-6 advantage on points off turnovers as its defense forced 21 Charleston miscues on the night.

WCU shot 39.3 percent from the floor hitting on 24-of-61 attempts.  Charleston, which outrebounded the Catamounts 43-30, shot 35.3 percent connecting on 18-of-51 attempts.

Andrew Goudelock led the Cougars with 15 points, while Tony White, Jr. added 12.  Charleston's Jermaine Johnson had a game-high 10 rebounds.