University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Host Montreat Thursday Night
12.14.2011 | Men's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's basketball team finally plays a game after an 11-day break for exams on Thursday night when the Bulldogs host Montreat College at Kimmel Arena starting at 7 p.m. Thursday's game will be broadcast on radio by WWNC (570-AM) with the pre-game show starting at 6:30 p.m. Video-streaming and audio-streaming of the game can be accessed at www.uncabulldogs.com.
Bulldog fans can get into the game for free with an unwrapped child's toy. Donations are being collected for the St. Nicholas Project from Eblen Charities.
Asheville (5-4) looks to continue its winning ways against the Cavaliers (4-6). The Bulldogs have won three straight games after a miraculous 88-81 victory over USC Upstate on Dec. 4. Asheville trailed 81-72 with less than four minutes remaining before scoring the final 16 points of the game to win. Montreat is 4-6 on the season and is also coming off a win. The Cavaliers downed Warren Wilson, 66-59 on Dec. 5.
"We're looking forward to playing a game again," commented Bulldog coach Eddie Biedenbach. "Our guys have been busy with their exams, and I'm anxious to see how we play on Thursday.
"Montreat is a good team that will play hard against us," added Biedenbach. "I would like our team to play well for 40 minutes. We haven't done that in the last two games and have been fortunate to escape with wins but we can't keep doing that."
The Bulldogs won last year's meeting 86-57 and have won the last five games in the series. Montreat's last victory was a 61-58 exhibition win in the 2005-06 season. The game counts in Asheville's regular-season record but is an exhibition game for the Cavaliers. The Bulldogs will be the third of four exhibition games for Montreat. They've played Presbyterian College and Western Carolina and will play at Liberty on Dec. 20.
Senior guard Matt Dickey is Asheville's leading scorer with a 16.8 average. He's scored in double figures in all nine games this season. Dickey is shooting .522 (47-of-90) from the field and tops the team in steals (17).
BULLDOG NOTES
Asheville is 3-1 in its new Kimmel Arena this season.
The Bulldogs are unbeaten in December at 2-0.
Senior guards Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm are moving up the career scoring charts at UNC Asheville this season. Dickey is now at 1,381 points which puts him in 11th place all-time with the Bulldog program. He needs just eight points this evening to move into the Top 10 and past Van Wilkins (1,388). Primm has 1,282 points and has moved into 16th place on the career scoring list. He needs 53 points to get into the top 15 and move past Rod Healy (1,334).
Thursday's game will be Asheville's last home game of 2011. The Bulldogs start a four-game road trip at Tennessee next Tuesday (Dec. 20) night. The Blue & White's next home game is VMI on Jan. 7.
Senior guard J.P. Primm needs just one more steal to reach 200 for his career. He'll be the fifth player in Big South Conference history to have more than 500 assists and 200 steals. Primm is closing in on the all-time school record for both assists and steals at Asheville. He enters tonight's game with 507 assists, needing just 14 to surpass K.J. Garland (520) as the all-time leader. The career leader in steals for the Bulldogs is Andre Smith (223) and Primm needs 25 to move past him.
The Bulldogs have four players scoring more than 10 points per game. They are Matt Dickey (16.8), J.P. Primm (13.0), Chris Stephenson (12.6) and Jaron Lane (10.8). Asheville has had 10 players score in double figures this year.
