Women's Basketball Hosts Presbyterian on Saturday

ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? The UNC Asheville women's basketball returns to the Justice Center Saturday afternoon when the Bulldogs host future Big South Conference foe Presbyterian College starting at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on WISE (1310-AM) Radio. It can be seen via video-streaming on www.bigsouthsports.com for a small fee. The game will also be televised tape-delay by AET-TV all next week starting Saturday at 9 p.m.

Asheville (4-4) is trying to break a two-game losing streak on Saturday. The Bulldogs have not played since a 72-53 loss at East Tennessee State on Saturday. Betsy Blose's club has been off since then due to exams.

“We haven't had a chance to practice too much due to exams,” commented Blose. “We're looking forward to getting back on the floor and playing a game on Saturday but we'll just have to see how we play.”

It was a frustrating afternoon in Johnson City on Saturday against an experienced ETSU club that went to the NIT last season. The Bulldogs had a really tough shooting day as they shot just 22 percent from the field and seven percent from beyond the arc.

“East Tennessee State did a great job on defense last week, and we just didn't respond very well,” explained Blose. “We missed a lot of easy shots that we need to make and made too many turnovers.

“We're a young team and still a work in progress,” added Blose. “There's no question that we're going to have our ups and downs but we're going to improve as the season goes on.”

Presbyterian (1-7) is its first year of playing a full Division I schedule and the Blue Hose picked up its first win of the year on Tuesday with a 63-62 victory at South Carolina State.

The teams played last year with Asheville winning a hard-fought 68-52 contest.

“Presbyterian is a well-coached team that gave us fits last season,” declared Blose. “They picked up a great win at South Carolina State and are playing good basketball right now. We'll need to play very well to have a chance at winning.

The Blue Hose enter the game with Asheville with two players averaging in double figures led by Sharie Hopkins, who is currently averaging 13.1 points per game and a team-best 5.8 rebounds per game. Amy Jones is currently averaging 10.1 points per game and a team-high 4.5 assists per game.

Asheville has Ashton Barton leading the Bulldogs in scoring with a 14.0 scoring average. Junior guard Ana Baker averages 11 points per game and has 41 assists on the year.

University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics

Women's Basketball Hosts Presbyterian on Saturday

Related News

Players Mentioned

Ana Baker

Ashton Barton

Related Videos