University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Men's Basketball Battles Back But Falls at #12 Tennessee, 86-73
12.19.2007 | Men's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, TENN. - #12 Tennessee held off a frantic UNC Asheville rally in the second half to record an 86-73 win before a crowd of 21,001 at Thompson-Boling Arena Wednesday night.
Senior guard K.J. Garland led Asheville (8-3) with 22 points, while Bryan Smithson added 21 points. 7-7 center Kenny George grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds.
The Volunteers (10-1) were led by Chris Lofton's 24 points. JaJuan Smith and J.P. Prince chipped in 13 points each.
Asheville trailed 64-37 early in the second half before roaring back and cutting the lead to nine at 76-67 with 3:21 left.
The Bulldogs went on a 30-12 run over a 10-minute stretch to make the sell-out crowd squirm in their seats. Asheville got 12 points from Garland during the run.
However, UT got two buckets from Lofton to push the lead to 80-67. The Volunteers went 6-of-6 from the charity stripe to keep Asheville from getting closer.
"I'm proud of the way we battled back in the second half, but if we could have played better in the first half, we could have really made this a game down the stretch," commented UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "We made a great run in the second half but had some crucial turnovers and missed some shots that we should have made."
"We got off to a great start and played really well in the first half but Asheville really came after us in the second half," commented Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. "Asheville is a very good team that's well-coached and is going to have a great year."
The Volunteers jumped in front early as they scored the first nine points of the game to sprint to a 13-1 lead before the first media timeout. UT hit its first four shots of the game, including a three-pointer from Lofton.
The Bulldogs were ice cold early. They missed their first six shots of the game. Tennessee extended the lead to 31-11 at the 10-minute mark of the opening half.
Asheville began to rally in the second part of the half, thanks to the scoring of Smithson and Garland. The duo scored 11 points each in the first half as Asheville trailed 42-26 at halftime.
"We just didn't execute early in the game," commented Biedenbach. "We really struggled on offense and let them get a big lead in the first half.
"I like the way we ?grinded' things out in the second half but if we could have only done that early in the game," added Biedenbach.
Asheville shot a season-low 33 points in the first half as the Bulldogs were just 7-of-21 from the field. UT shot 56 percent as it went 18-of-32 from the field. The Volunteers' suffocating defense forced the Dogs into 10 turnovers. Lofton led UT with 13 points in the first half.
UNC Asheville will have the next 10 days off before hosting the University of Buffalo at Justice Center on Dec. 29 starting at 2 p.m. It will be the first meeting ever between the teams.
NOTES - Kenny George blocked four shots in the game and now has 99 in his career. He moved into fifth place on the career blocked shot list at UNC Asheville as he moved past Milton Moore (98)...K.J. Garland finished with four assists and now has 392 career assists...the 21,101 fans that attended Wednesday's game is the sixth largest crowd to see the Bulldogs play...Asheville shot 50 percent (16-of-32) in the second half and outscored UT 47-44 in the second half.
