Women's Basketball Hosts Liberty Saturday Afternoon

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville women's basketball team will try to pull off an upset Saturday afternoon when the Bulldogs host defending Big South Conference Liberty at Justice Center starting at 2 p.m. Saturday's game will be broadcast by WISE Radio (1310-AM) with the pre-game show starting at 1:30 p.m. The game will also be video-streamed at www.bigsouthsports.com.

Asheville (7-19, 2-11 BSC) faces a monumental challenge on Saturday as the Bulldogs take on a strong Flames' (20-5, 10-2 BSC) squad that is fighting for a regular-season championship with Gardner-Webb. Liberty has won 12 of the last 13 Big South Conference titles and captured two straight championships. They whipped Asheville earlier this year in Lynchburg, 82-40.

"Liberty is very young but extremely talented," stated Asheville coach Betsy Blose. "It's scary to think how good they'll be once they get some experience.

"We played with them for the first 16 minutes of the game but they made a run at the end of the first half to take control," added Blose. "Liberty is so big and they do a great job on defense.

"We're just going to have to play as hard as we can," Blose also said. "We can't turn the ball over and can't go through a scoring lull for a long time. We've got our work cut out for us, but if we can make some shots and limit our turnovers we can give them a battle."

Liberty owns a long winning streak at Justice Center against the Bulldogs. The Flames have won 12 straight against Asheville at Justice Center. You have to go back to the 1996-97 when the Bulldogs last won against the Flames at Justice Center. Current Asheville assistant coach Tiffany Gwynn was a player on that Liberty team.

The Bulldogs are continuing to be led by junior forward Lindsey Montgomery with a 12.4 scoring mark and 10.3 rebounding average. She leads Asheville in steals (46) and blocked shots (31). Red-shirt freshman Kelli Riles has played well recently as she's scored 12 points in the last two games and given the Bulldogs inside game a lift.

Asheville will try to move up in the league standings as it will play its final three games in friendly confines of Justice Center. The Bulldogs host Radford Monday night and then finish the regular season with a game against Winthrop next Friday night.

"We're glad we're going to finish the season at home," said Blose. "We've got a chance to get some momentum for the Big South Conference Tournament."