Women's Basketball to Play Radford on Friday in Quarterfinals of Big South Tournament

ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? The UNC Asheville women's basketball team will open the 2008 Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Tournament in the quarterfinals against second-seeded Radford at Justice Center Friday afternoon at 4 p.m.

Tournament passes are on sale for $25 for adults and $15 for children. A pass will allow you to see all six games of the tournament that starts Friday with three quarterfinal games. The semifinals will be on Saturday at 6 and 8:30 p.m. with the championship game slated for Sunday at 2 p.m. The semifinals and finals will be televised by SportSouth. Tickets can be obtained by calling 251-6904 or going on-line at www.uncabulldogs.com.

The Bulldogs have gone through an injury-plagued season and bring a 12-17 overall record to Friday's game. Asheville is the defending conference champion after defeating Radford in last year's title game, 67-57.

The seventh-seeded Bulldogs picked up a win in their last game when they upset Winthrop on the road, 63-60 last Wednesday night. Ashton Barton and Anna Baker finished with 18 points each in the win.

“I'm really proud of our team to win a road game against a tough Winthrop team on its home-court,” stated Asheville coach Betsy Blose. “We're excited about the tournament being in Asheville and hope we can play well. We'll have a tough test with Radford.”

The Highlanders are 21-10 on the season and went 8-4 in league play. They knocked the Bulldogs off twice this season, winning 68-49 at Radford on Feb. 2 and 70-58 at Justice Center 70-58.

“Radford has a good team and is well-coached,” commented Blose. “They won 21 games this year and have a lot of their team back from last year's that got to the championship game.”

Senior guard Ashton Barton leads the Bulldogs in scoring with a 13.9 average. Junior Jessica Monroe has a 9.9 average. Senior center Stacy Shepard tops the Big South Conference in rebounding with a 9.9 mark.