University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville Women's Basketball Set to Host Southern Wesleyan
12.10.2009 | Women's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville women's basketball team is back in action this Friday night when Southern Wesleyan comes to Justice Center for a non-conference battle that starts at 7 p.m. The game will be video-streamed and can be seen for a small fee at www.bigsouthsports.com. Fans can receive a free general admission ticket for tomorrow's game by donating a toy for Toys for Tots.
The Bulldogs (2-5) hope to snap a four-game losing streak on Friday. Asheville lost at Charlotte Saturday afternoon, 59-37 and has had the week off for exams. Betsy Blose's club faces a tough challenge in Southern Wesleyan. The Lady Warriors are 6-2 on the season and averaging 83 points per game. They recently beat Truett-McConnell 98-28 as they scored the first 33 points of the contest.
"Friday's game will be a real test," commented Blose. "Southern Wesleyan has a good team. They're well-coached and play great defense. We're going to have to be ready to play from the start against them to have a chance at winning."
The Bulldogs struggled on offense against Charlotte's tough defense. The 49ers forced Asheville into 30 turnovers. The Bulldogs shot 30 percent from the field and just couldn't get untracked on offense.
"Charlotte's defense forced some of our turnovers but not all of them," explained Blose. "We missed a lot of easy shots that if we could have made then we had a chance to be in the game.
"We're still a young basketball team that is a work in progress," added Blose. "We did some good things on defense against Charlotte, but we've got to start scoring a little better."
The Southern Wesleyan game starts a three-game homestand for the Bulldogs. Asheville hosts Georgia Southern on Wednesday (Dec. 16) and then plays Elon (Dec. 21) at Justice Center starting at 2:30 p.m. right before Christmas.
"It's nice to be at home for a couple of games," said Blose. "We're trying to finish up our exams and then try and get better with each game."
NOTES - Southern Wesleyan coach LaCheryl Smith was Bulldog junior Kiana Rainey's high school coach at Hillcrest HS in Simpsonville, S.C....sophomore guard Lindsey Thompson is Asheville's top scorer with a 9.6 scoring average...she has 21 field goals on the year with 15 of those being three-pointers...the Bulldogs are out-rebounding their opponents this year 41.4 to 40.6...this is the first ever meeting between Southern Wesleyan and UNC Asheville.
