Women's Basketball To Open Season Against Newberry on Saturday

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville women's basketball team opens the 2009-10 season Saturday afternoon at home against Newberry starting at 4:30 p.m. The game can be seen via video-streaming for a small fee at www.bigsouthsports.com.

The Bulldogs won their lone exhibition game last Friday night when they downed Mars Hill 92-72. Five players scored in double-figures for Asheville. The Bulldogs were led by Lindsey Montgomery and freshman guard Grace Blaylock's 15 points each. Kendall Shepard and Lindsey Thompson finished with 11 points apiece. Thompson collected eight rebounds and had four assists. Chima Okoli added 10 points.

Seventh-year head coach Betsy Blose was fairly pleased with her young team's performance in the exhibition game.

"We played pretty well against a good Mars Hill team," stated Blose. "I was disappointed in the points we gave up and had way too many turnovers (28) but for a first exhibition game we did a lot of good things. I'm hoping we can build on that game for the first part of the season."

Asheville faces a Newberry team on Saturday that is in the same league with Mars Hill. Newberry went 18-11 last season as it fell in the semifinals of the South Atlantic

Conference Tournament. They are a preseason pick to finish in the third place in the SAC this year. Junior guard Helen McKinney is Newberry's top returning scorer as she averaged 14.9 points and 7.2 rebounds last season.

"We've got a tough opener," commented Blose. "Newberry has a new coach and he's brought in some players from Australia to go with the good players they have back from last season. We really don't know much about them, so we're going to have to play well to have a chance at winning."