Men's Basketball Hosts Charleston Southern Saturday Afternoon

ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? The UNC Asheville men's basketball team attempts to break a four-game losing streak Saturday afternoon at Justice Center when the Bulldogs host Charleston Southern for homecoming starting at 4:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on radio station WISE (1310-AM) and video-streamed at www.uncabulldogs.com. It will also be televised on tape delay at AET (Channel 16) starting Saturday night at 9 p.m. and will run throughout next week. The game is sold out.

UNC Asheville (18-8, 7-4 BSC) has fallen into second place in the Big South Conference standings behind Winthrop (18-9, 9-3 BSC). The Bulldogs had not lost two in a row this year until their recent streak. A couple of injuries have slowed Asheville down as senior guard and leading scorer Bryan Smithson has been hobbled the past four games. Junior center Kenny George has played only 11 minutes in the last five games.

“Injuries are going to happen. Everyone has injuries and we just have to play through them,” commented UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. “We battled hard at Radford (a 62-53 loss on Wednesday) but just couldn't make any shots. Hopefully, we will get that kind of effort Saturday and make some more shots.”

The Bulldog loss at Radford was a tough one as Asheville went ice cold from the field Wednesday night in the second half. The Dogs shot just 14 percent from the field in the second half as they went 5-of-36. Asheville was 0-of-16 from the three-point line.

“We played pretty good defense on a talented Radford squad and despite our offensive shortcoming we still had a shot to win,” added Biedenbach. “However, you're not going to win many games making five field goals in a half. Sometimes you have nights where you can't score.”

Once again, the Bulldogs are facing a team playing pretty good basketball. Charleston Southern had been struggling but last weekend knocked off High Point and Liberty at home to improve to 9-17 overall and 3-8 in the league. The Buccaneers have a talented backcourt led by senior Chris Moore with a 13.4 point scoring average. Two freshmen having been having good seasons join Moore. Omar Carter is averaging 15.8 points per game, while Jamarco Warren averages 14.5 points.

The Bulldogs downed CSU at the Buc Dome on Jan. 26, 86-73 behind 21 points from Bryan Smithson.

“I've been impressed with Charleston Southern's young players all year long, and I really thought we played one of our better games against them last month,” stated Biedenbach.

“They (Charleston Southern) had a tough stretch but to their credit hung in there and picked up two great wins last weekend against High Point and Liberty. We're going to have to play much better than we've been playing to have a chance against Charleston Southern on Saturday.”

Smithson continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring with a 16.0 average. K.J. Garland is averaging 14.1 points per game and has a team-leading 152 assists. Kenny George is at 12.2 points per game and has 84 blocked shots on the year. He still leads the nation in field goal shooting at 70.6 percent. Vincent James averages 11.0 points per game, while Reid Augst is at 10 points per game.

NOTES ? UNC Asheville's next win will set a school record since going to Division I for most victories during the regular season...the previous record was 18 wins in the 1997-98 season...Kenny George needs just three more blocked shots to set a single-season school record for blocked shots as the current record is 86 by C.J. Walker in the 2003-04 year...the Bulldogs have suddenly struggled from the field with their shooting as Asheville has been below 44 percent in their last four games and in three games, the Dogs have shot below 40 percent...Vincent James has averaged 14.5 points per game in the last two games and has a shot a team-high 121 free throws on the year...the Bulldogs have been out-rebounded in five of their last six games...senior guard K.J. Garland has 1,290 career points and is in 14^th place on the career scoring list at Asheville...the Bulldogs are 5-1 in games decided by five points or less this season.