University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts High Point Thursday Night at 7 p.m.
01.27.2010 | Men's Basketball
Asheville (8-12, 5-4 BSC) has partially recovered from a four-game Big South Conference losing streak earlier this month with four straight conference victories over the past two weeks. The Bulldogs have moved into third place in the latest league standings. However, Asheville is in a five-way tie for third place with Charleston Southern, High Point, Liberty and Winthrop.
"We need to keep improving and to keep winning," admitted Bulldog coach Eddie Biedenbach. "We're playing a little better but there's still plenty of room to get better. Right now we don't have time to worry about where we are in the standings because there's a lot of basketball left to be played."
Thursday's game starts the second half of league play. Asheville fell to High Point on Jan. 4 at the Millis Center, 66-62. The Panthers (10-9, 5-4 BSC) lost their first home game of the season on Saturday against VMI, 94-91.
"High Point is a good team, and they're coached well by Scott Cherry," explained Biedenbach. "We had a tough loss against them earlier this month. We'll need to play well to have a chance at winning Thursday night."
The Bulldogs picked up their fifth straight win on Saturday in a wild 99-89 victory over Presbyterian College. Asheville led from start to finish but had to hold on as the Blue unloaded a three-point barrage against the Bulldogs. PC went 13-for-21 from long range in the game to keep close.
"We let up some on defense in the second half, and Presbyterian made us pay," said Biedenbach. "High Point has some excellent three-point shooters who can really hurt us if we don't play better perimeter defense."
NOTES - Asheville's five-game winning streak is the longest win streak by the Bulldogs since a seven-game streak in the 2007-08 season...Matt Dickey has scored in double figures in five straight games and is averaging 16 points per game in that stretch...after going through most of the season with just one player averaging in double figures, Asheville has five players scoring in double figures...the Bulldogs have won two straight against High Point at Justice Center but the Panthers won four of their previous five trips to Justice Center.
