University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Men's Basketball Travels to Liberty Tuesday Night - UNC Asheville Bulldogs Official Athletics Site
01.01.1970 | Men's Basketball
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Jan. 29, 2007
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's basketball team looks for its second straight victory Tuesday night when the Bulldogs play a crucial Big South Conference game at Liberty University. The game will be broadcast on WISE (1310-AM) Radio and on the internet at www.uncabulldogs.com.
The Bulldogs (7-14, 3-4 BSC) are tied with Liberty and VMI for fourth place in the league standings. The top four schools at the end of the regular season host a first-round Big South Tournament game. Every game is important.
UNC Asheville knocked off Liberty earlier this season, 84-77 back on Jan. 6 at Justice Center. However, the Flames have been playing pretty well lately and are always tough to be at the Vines Center in Lynchburg, Va. Liberty has won two straight, including a wild 122-117 victory over VMI Saturday night. The Bulldogs are coming off a hard-fought 53-40 victory over Charleston Southern at Justice Center Saturday afternoon.
"We played pretty good defense on Saturday but struggled some on offense," admitted UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "I thought our effort was excellent but we just need to play 40 minutes of consistent basketball. We're going to need to play very well to have any chance of winning at Liberty."
The Flames are being led by senior guard Larry Blair. Blair leads the LU in scoring with a 19.9 average. Forward Alex McLean is a force inside with a 13.9 scoring and 8.7 rebounding average. He's shooting 53 percent from the field.
"Liberty is a good team that can score a lot of points in a hurry," commented Biedenbach. "We built a nice lead against them at our place, and they made us sweat at the end of the game. Larry Blair is a terrific guard who is very tough to stop scoring."
The Bulldogs continue to be led in scoring by Bryan Smithson. Smithson tops the club in scoring (14.1), steals (36), three-pointers made (24) and free throw percentage (84.2). His free throw percentage leads the Big South Conference. Forward Vincent James is averaging right at 10 points per game. Junior guard K.J. Garland is having a great year in the backcourt with 80 assists. He's averaging 5.7 assists per game in league play and that's tied for first in the Big South.
Asheville hopes to continue the good defense it showed against CSU. The 40 points allowed was the least amount of points given up by a Bulldog team in a Big South Conference game ever.
