University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Bluefield
Bulldogs Down Bluefield 97-74
01.18.2010 | Men's Basketball
The Bulldogs (6-12) also had a great game from sophomore guard J.P. Primm as he tied his career-high in points with 21. He also had seven assists and seven rebounds plus four steals. Matt Dickey contributed 16 points, four assist and four steals. John Williams just missed a double-double with 16 points and eight rebounds. He blocked five shots.
The Rams were led by Omar Reed with a team-high 24 points. Borgia M'Bala added 18 points, 15 in the second half. Carlton Shumake finished with 14 points. The loss does not count on Bluefield's record as for the Rams the game counts as an exhibition tilt.
Monday's game began a five-game homestand for Asheville. It will be the longest homestand for the Bulldogs in more than 30 years. Asheville hosts Big South rivals Winthrop on Thursday night (7 p.m. and Presbyterian on Saturday (4:30 p.m.).
"This is a big homestand for us and it was nice to start it with a victory," commented Bulldog coach Eddie Biedenbach. "Chris Stephenson had a tremendous game and overall we did a lot of good things on offense.
"However, we let up in the second half and struggled a bit on defense," added Biedenbach. "We let Bluefield get too many open three-pointers plus we started settling for three-pointers. We're getting better but we still have work to do.
"This is such an important homestand for us," Biedenbach also said. "We've had some tough moments this year but if we can grind out some victories at home then we get back in the thick of things in the Big South Conference race."
Asheville led from start to finish. Primm hit three 3-pointers in the first five minutes to get the Bulldogs off to an early lead. Bluefield, thanks to 12 points from Reed, was within 41-31 at the 3-minute mark. Asheville ended the half on an 11-2 run as it did a great job getting the ball inside and drawing fouls. The Bulldogs were 8-of-10 from the charity stripe in the final three minutes plus got a long trey from Stephenson.
Asheville scored a season-high 53 points in the opening half as it 60 percent (18-of-30) from the field to lead 53-33 at halftime.
The Rams shot the ball well from beyond the arc in the second half as they went 7-of-13 (54%) and didn't allow the Bulldogs to run away with the game. Bluefield got as close as 14 with 10 minutes left but Stephenson led a 9-0 run with six points to get Asheville in front 78-55.
Stephenson had a great day shooting the ball. He went 10-of-14 from the field, 3-of-3 from beyond the arc and 3-of-5 from the free throw line. He also had four assists.
Williams also had a great day shooting. He went 5-of-6 from the field and 6-of-6 from the line. His five blocked shots gives him a career total of 171 blocks and that moved him into second place on Asheville's career total list. He needs just 20 to move past C.J. Walker (190) into first place on the career list.
The Bulldogs get back in Big South Conference play Thursday night at Justice Center when they host Winthrop at 7 p.m. Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach will have his first chance to become the Big South's all-time leader in league victories. He will enter the Winthrop contest with 109 league wins as he's tied with former Radford coach Ron Bradley.
