Men's Basketball Set to Face Top-Ranked North Carolina on Sunday

ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? A young UNC Asheville men's basketball team will get the ultimate test in the early part of the 2008-09 season when the Bulldogs head to Chapel Hill for a date with the top-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised regionally by FoxSportSouth.

Sunday's game begins a busy week for the Bulldogs. They'll face unbeaten Tennessee Wednesday night in Knoxville at 7 p.m. UNC Asheville returns home to host Big South Conference foe VMI on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The Keydets are 4-1 on the season with a win at Kentucky under their belt.

The Bulldogs fell to 3-2 on the season with a 74-69 loss at Wofford Tuesday night. Asheville battled the Terriers hard and showed a great deal of improvement after a horrifying 94-57 loss at Campbell last Saturday.

“We did a lot of good things against Wofford,” commented Bulldog coach Eddie Biedenbach. “However, we didn't do enough to get a win on the road. Our attitude and effort was excellent. We scrapped and fought but just came up a little short. If we keep battling like that, we'll find a way to get a win on the road.”

The Bulldogs have their work cut out for them on Sunday at North Carolina. The Tar Heels are everyone's favorite to win the national championship. Despite some early injuries, North Carolina is 6-0 and just captured the Maui Invitational with impressive wins over Oregon and Notre Dame.

“North Carolina is the best team in the country,” declared Biedenbach. “They're one of the best college basketball teams I've seen in awhile. On top of how good they are, they're also well-coached by Roy Williams. They present an assortment of challenges for our young team but we're going to play as hard as we can and see what happens.”

This is the fourth straight year the teams have played and last year a veteran Bulldog team gave a good showing in Chapel Hill before falling, 92-81.

Asheville is showing good balance in its scoring this year. The Bulldogs have four players averaging in double figures in Reid Augst (12.2), Sean Smith (11.8), John Williams (11.4) and J.P. Primm (10.8).

NOTES ? Freshman guard J.P. Primm leads the Big South in assists with a 6.0 per game average...UNC Asheville is 0-6 against the Tar Heels...Sean Smith is shooting 56 percent from the three-point line (13-of-23) and 91 percent (10-of-11) from the charity stripe...the Bulldogs have four players shooting better than 50 percent from the field in Jason Ridenhour (66.7%), Matt Dickey (56%), John Williams (53%) and J.P. Primm (52.8%)...UNC Asheville plays at Duke next month (Dec. 17).