Men's Basketball Loses at Birmingham-Southern, 75-61 - UNC Asheville Bulldogs Official Athletics Site

Feb. 1, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. - Birmingham-Southern placed four players in double figures and shot 63 percent from the field in the second half to record a 75-61 Big South Conference win over visiting UNC Asheville Wednesday night.

The victory was the eighth straight for the Panthers (15-5, 8-1 BSC) and moved them into a first-place tie with Winthrop. The loss was the second straight for the Bulldogs (5-14, 3-6 BSC).

Asheville was led by freshman forward Michael Ellis who was simply brilliant all night long. He finished with a career-high 29 points as he went 9-of-11 from the field, 9-of-10 from the free throw line and made both of his three-point attempts. The Statesville native also collected seven rebounds.

Oliver Holmes chipped in 10 points for the Bulldogs, eight in the first half. Senior guard Omar Collington didn't start for the first time in 56 games due to flu-like symptoms. He did not score in the game.

"Birmingham-Southern is a good team and they showed it tonight," commented Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "They have good balance all the way around and can beat you both inside and outside.

"However, we didn't battle inside tonight. We let them score inside way too easily," added Biedenbach. "We just gave them too many easy baskets throughout the night, especially in the second half when we were hanging around."

Biedenbach was pleased with Ellis' play.

"Michael really battled all night," stated Biedenbach. "He fought on both offense and defense and did a great job scoring. Michael scored 29 points on just 11 shots."

Asheville trailed 34-29 early in the second half and was within 10 at 56-46 with 10 minutes left when BSC put the game. The Panthers went on a quick 8-0 run to push the lead to 66-48. The Bulldogs could get no closer than 13 the rest of the game.

Birmingham-Southern was 14-of-22 from the field in the second half, while Asheville went 13-of-29 for 44 percent. The Bulldogs struggled from the field in the first half at 32 percent (8-of-25).

The Bulldogs battled back in the first half. BSC built a 21-10 first-half lead only to see Asheville come back to cut the lead to 29-27 behind the play of Holmes and Ellis. Holmes hit two treys and Ellis scored seven points to get the Dogs to 24-22. However, James Collins led a late BSC run as he hit two quick treys to get the Panthers in front, 33-26 at halftime.

UNC Asheville returns home Saturday afternoon to host Radford University at Justice Center starting at 4:30 p.m.