University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs to Host Big South Leader Coastal Carolina Thursday Night
01.19.2011 | Men's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's basketball team faces a tough task Thursday night when the Bulldogs host Big South-leader Coastal Carolina at Justice Center starting at 7 p.m. Thursday's game will be broadcast locally on ESPN Radio (1310 & 970) with the pre-game show starting at 6:30 p.m. The game will also be audio and video-streamed for a small fee and can be obtained at www.uncabulldogs.com.
Asheville (9-8, 4-3) has a three-game winning streak going into Thursday's night game with the Chanticleers (16-2, 7-0 BSC). Coastal Carolina will bring a 14-game winning streak into Justice Center. The Chants haven't lost a game in more than two months. The Chants last defeat came on Nov. 18 when they fell to Georgetown, 80-61. They knocked off Presbyterian College at home on Saturday, 60-42.
The Bulldogs won their third straight game on Saturday with a hard-fought 68-59 home victory over Gardner-Webb. Matt Dickey led Asheville with 20 points, while John Williams finished with 13 points. The Bulldogs shot 56 percent (24-of-43) from the field and limited Gardner-Webb to just 34 percent (22-of-65) shooting from the field.
Coastal Carolina is being led by junior guard Desmond Holloway with an 18.6 scoring average. Chad Gray is averaging 13.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. The Chanticleers 14-game winning streak is the fourth longest in the country.
"Coastal Carolina is a very, very good team," stated Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "They've beaten LSU on the road and posted some impressive victories during this streak. We all know that Cliff Ellis (Coastal Carolina head coach) is an excellent coach. He always has his team ready to play.
"We'll need to play as well as we can on Thursday night," added Biedenbach. "Coastal Carolina is impressive both on offense and defense. We'll need to be at our best for 40 minutes."
BULLDOG NOTES
Series Notes: Coastal Carolina leads the all-time series 30-27. The Chanticleers beat the Bulldogs three times last year. They edged Asheville 58-57 when Chad Gray hit a short jumper with 5.2 seconds left at Justice Center. Coastal blew out the Bulldogs in Conway later in the season as it won 98-62 on Feb. 6 at Kimbel Arena and 92-73 in the quarterfinals of the Big South Tournament. The Chanticleers have won four of the five meetings between the teams and have posted wins at Justice Center in three of the last five meetings. Prior to CCU's 88-70 win in the 2005-06 season, the Bulldogs had won 11 straight against the Chanticleers at Justice Center. The Bulldogs have faced Cliff Ellis-coached teams at Clemson, Auburn and now Coastal Carolina. Asheville is 3-9 against Ellis-coached teams.
Next up for 1,000 Career Points - J.P. Primm & Matt Dickey: John Williams became the 25th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points in Asheville's win over Gardner-Webb. He should be getting some company in that category shortly. Both Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm have more than 900 career points and should get to 1,000 career points this season. Matt enters tonight's game with 955 points, while J.P. comes in with 938 points. If they both get to 1,000 career points, it will mark the first time in a Bulldog season that three different players reached 1,000 career points in the same year.
More Good Shooting: UNC Asheville has struggled with its shooting for much of the season but lately the Bulldogs have been much better. Asheville has been above 50 percent from the field with its shooting in the last three games as the Bulldogs have gone, 83-of-154 (53.8%). Previous to this recent three-game stretch of good shooting, Asheville had only been above 50 percent in two other games this year. The Bulldogs will have their hands full tonight on offense. Coastal Carolina leads the Big South in field goal percentage defense as opponents are shooting just 39.8% from the field.
Pretty Good Defense in Victories: Asheville is 4-3 in the Big South Conference this year and in its four wins the Bulldogs defense has been very good. In league wins over Radford, Winthrop, Presbyterian College and Gardner-Webb, none of those teams have shot better than 37.5 percent from the field. Three of those teams failed to score 60 points against the Bulldogs and Winthrop would need a late run to get to 67 points after the game was decided. In its four BSC wins, Asheville is allowing its opponent to score just 56 points per game and shoot 33 percent (73-of-220) from the field.
