ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? UNC Asheville's women's basketball team hosts Radford in a re-match of last season's Big South Championship Game at 7 p.m. in the Justice Center. The game can be heard live on ESPN Radio AM-970/1310 WISE in the Asheville area and can be seen worldwide on bigsouthsports.com for a small fee.
The Bulldogs (11-15, 2-7 Big South) are coming off a loss to Charleston Southern on Saturday in which they lost a halftime lead for just the second time this season. Freshman Chioma Okoli had a career-high 20 points against the Lady Bucs. Senior Stacy Shepard continued her fine play with her third consecutive double-double. She had 10 points and 13 rebounds in the game. In Big South play, Shepard is averaging 9.6 points and 12.4 rebounds per contest. She leads the Big South and is currently 11th in the nation in rebounding.
Asheville's leading scorer Ashton Barton is fourth in the Big South in scoring at 13.4 points per game but she has found scoring against Radford tough in her career. She is only averaging 5.1 points in seven career games against the Highlanders. Ana Baker will make her return to the starting line-up. She has scored in double figures in each of her last three games and is third in the Big South in both assists and steals.
The Highlanders (19-9, 6-3 Big South) have won two-straight games and finds themselves tied for second place in the Big South. Radford has all five of its starters averaging double figure points led by Kelli Darden and Taleia Moton who are each scoring 12 points per game. Johnette Walker is averaging 11.3 points while Corrie Fertitta and Vandy Pullen average 10.9 and 10.0 points respectively. Darden leads the team in rebounding pulling down 8.4 boards per game. RU is second in the conference in scoring at 67.8 points per game.
Radford leads the all-time series 27-12 but recent history has been much closer as the home team has won the last 11 games in the series. Radford won the first game this season at the Dedmon Center 68-49 but its last win in the Justice Center came in 2003. Asheville's last win in the series was in last year's Big South Championship Game also at the Justice Center.
