ASHEVILLE, N.C.?UNC Asheville's women's basketball team plays its final home game of 2007 Friday night against the Mercer Bears at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on AM-1310 WISE in Asheville and will be video streamed for a small fee on bigsouthsports.com.
The Bulldogs are 6-5 on the year following an 82-70 loss at Gardner-Webb on Monday. Two players are averaging in double figures for Asheville led by Ashton Barton who is averaging 13.5 points per game. She currently has 900 career points and had a team-high 15 points when the two teams met last season.
Jessica Monroe is averaging 10.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game for the Dogs. Monroe had 17 points, one off her career best, at GWU on Monday. Ana Baker is just shy of double figures as she averages 9.9 points per outing.
Asheville is the second highest scoring team in the Big South averaging 70.6 points per game. The Dogs have been a little better than that averaging 73.5 points at home where the Dogs are 5-1 this season.
Mercer (3-7) is playing game three of a season-long six game road trip that swings across five states (Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio). The Bears do not have a home game in the entire month of December. Mercer is 0-2 on the trip so far following a 71-50 loss at Troy and a 102-45 loss at No. 7 Georgia.
Gabrielle Essex is averaging 11.3 points per game but did not play in the Bears loss at Georgia on Monday. She has only played in four games this season. Sarah Russell is averaging 9.4 points and 6.3 rebounds to lead all players who have played in at least eight games. The Bears are shooting 33 percent from the floor as a team and are averaging 53.5 points per game. Mercer is also being out-rebounded by its opponents by six boards per game.
Mercer holds a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series winning 71-70 in Asheville during the 1995-96 season and 55-51 in Macon in 1996-97. The most recent meeting between the schools was a 64-51 Asheville victory last season in the title game of the Mercer Blade Holiday Tournament. Asheville hit a school record tying 11 3-pointers in the game.
