University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Women's Basketball Begins Four-Game Road Trip at Gardner-Webb on Saturday
01.08.2010 | Women's Basketball
The Bulldogs (5-9, 1-1 BSC) are coming off a frustrating 67-50 home loss to Charleston Southern Monday night. Asheville's offense struggled for 40 minutes on Monday with 27 turnovers and 30 percent shooting from the field.
"We played hard on Monday but didn't play well," stated Asheville coach Betsy Blose. "We just never could get in any kind of groove on offense the entire night against Charleston Southern. What was frustrating is the most of our turnovers were self-inflicted. We traveled way too much and just didn't play as smart as we could have.
"We got some good looks during the game but had some shots just miss," added Blose. "Our defense wasn't too bad, and we did a wonderful job on the boards (45-30). We just need to put everything together."
The Bulldogs will need to put things together against a tough Gardner-Webb team. The Runnin' Bulldogs (12-3, 1-1 BSC) had an eight-game home winning streak snapped on Monday by Radford, 68-53. Gardner-Webb had just beaten defending Big South champ Liberty last Saturday, 70-65 and last month stunned Big 10 foe Purdue, 56-55 on the road.
"We have our work cut out for us playing Gardner-Webb," commented Blose. "Gardner-Webb is a very good team that has posted some great wins this year. They have very talented players, and Rick Reeves (Gardner-Webb's head coach) is an excellent coach."
The Bulldogs got some good news earlier in the week when junior forward Lindsey Montgomery was named Big South Player of the Week. Montgomery has five double-doubles this year and four in her last seven games. She is the only player in the Big South Conference averaging a double-double with a 12.0 scoring average and 10.2 mark.
NOTES - Asheville has won two of its last three games...the Bulldogs are out-rebounding their opponents 40.6-36.5 and have out-rebounded their last three opponents...Asheville has registered at least 22 turnovers in its last four games...Saturday's game is a reunion for Gardner-Webb head coach Rick Reeves and first-year Bulldog assistant Tiffany Gwynn as she played for Reeves when he was the head coach at Liberty and later served on his coaching staff at Southern Mississippi...Montgomery has four double-doubles in her last seven game in the other three games she was either one point or one rebound away from another double-double...Asheville's next home game is with North Carolina Central on Friday, Jan. 22.
