CULLOWHEE, N.C. ? Presbyterian College came within three points of history on Thursday night in a tightly contested 60-57 loss to Western Carolina at the Ramsey Center.

In a game that had nine lead changes and seven tie scores PC could have walked away with its first road victory.

Pierre Miller (Warner-Robbins, Ga.) led the Blue Hose in the loss, scoring a career-high 16 points. Miller dished out five assists in the game and secured three rebounds.

He was one of three Blue Hose in double figures. Al'Lonzo Coleman (Charlotte, N.C.) just missed out on a double-double once again with 10 points and eight rebounds. Coleman had a career-best three blocks in the game.

Josh Johnson (Hendersonville, Tenn.) concluded his evening with 10 points, four boards and two assists.

Western Carolina was led in its victory by Brandon Giles, who had a game-high 17 points. He was one three in double digits for WCU as Blake Gallagher (12) and Jake Robinson (11) both had double figures in the game.

Overall, PC shot 38.8 percent in the game, while the Catamounts ended the evening shooting 39.2 percent. PC was much more proficient from beyond the arc at 37 percent compared to WCU's 23 percent.

Down by three at 58-55, PC head coach Gregg Nibert called a full time out with 35.2 seconds left in the game.

Johnson then hit a lay-up off an errant Walt Allen three-point shot to put PC down by one at 58-57 with under 20 seconds to play.

The Blue Hose, forced to foul, would then foul Robinson and he would hit the two free throws with 11 seconds left in the game to give WCU a 60-57 advantage.

Pat Kiscaden's shot would miss at the buzzer and the Catamounts would earn the three-point victory to improve to 4-7 on the season.

PC dropped to 1-15 with the loss to the SoCon's Catamounts.

The Blue Hose entered the second half with a 27-24 lead, but Western Carolina commenced the second half by going on a 7-2 run to take a 31-29 lead with just under 18 minutes to go in the game.

The lead would change three more times over the next few minutes with Western Carolina's Robinson hitting a three-pointer with 11:30 left in the contest to give WCU a 40-37 advantage.

The two teams continued to score over the next few minutes, but neither team could pull ahead with the Blue Hose still down by three points at 51-48 after Miller's fifth three-pointer of the contest with six minutes left to go in the game.

Allen (London, Ky.) then cut the lead to one at 54-53 with two free throws with just under four minutes to play. Coleman then hit a lay-up to give PC its first lead in almost 16 minutes at 55-54.

Western Carolina would then promptly go on a 4-0 run to take a 58-55 lead with 1:06 left in the contest.

The Blue Hose opened the game by scoring the first points of the contest for only the third time in their first 16 games.

The Blue Hose would pull ahead 5-2 in the early moments of the game, but would allow the Catamounts to then go on a 10-0 run that eventually forced Nibert to take a 30-second time out to allow his squad to regroup with 13:10 left in the first half and the Catamounts on top 12-5.

PC and WCU would play close over the next few minutes, but behind two consecutive three-pointers by Pat Kiscaden the Blue Hose pulled to within five at 22-17 with 4:56 left in the first stanza.

Over the next couple minutes on a three-pointer by Miller and a lay-up by Coleman the Blue Hose would go on a 5-0 run to tie the game at 22-22 with just over a minute left in the first half.

Miller then hit a three-pointer with 20 seconds left in the half to give the Blue Hose a 27-24 lead going into intermission. The lead for the Blue Hose entering halftime marked only the second time in the 2007-08 season that the Blue Hose had garnered a lead going into the locker rooms.

PC, who for much of the first half shot around 20 to 25 percent, improved dramatically over the final minutes of the first half to finish the first stanza shooting 40 percent. Western Carolina finished the half shooting 31 percent, including only 20 percent from beyond the arc.

PC was 6-for-15 (40 percent) from beyond the arc in the first half.

PC next begins one its tougher stretches of the season as the Blue Hose will play four consecutive teams from either the SEC or the ACC. PC begins the last four games of its 11-game road swing with a game against the SEC's Georgia at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 30 from Stegeman Coliseum.

The Blue Hose will then face off against three straight ACC foes over the course of the next week, beginning with a game against Wake Forest at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 2. PC will then return to the Tar Heel state for a game against NC State in Raleigh, N.C. at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 5 before closing out its three-game ACC road stretch with a game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga. on Sunday, Jan. 6.

PC finally will play its first home game since its home win over Radford on Dec. 1 on Jan. 8 against the Army Black Knights. The second of two games between the two schools this season is also the second game of a doubleheader at the Templeton Center with the Lady Blue Hose taking on preseason Big South Conference favorite Radford at 6 p.m. in the opening game of the twinbill at the Templeton Center.

The PC-Army tilt will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the PC-Radford women's basketball game.