University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Kennesaw State
Kennesaw State?s Late Rally Upends Bulldogs
12.17.2011 | Women's Basketball
KENNESAW, Ga. - Freshmen Brittany Gwyn and Shonese Jones each scored career-highs and Kelli Riles picked up her fourth double-double of the season, but the Bulldogs could not survive a furious second-half rally by Kennesaw State as UNC Asheville fell to the Owls 83-79 at the KSU Convocation Center on Saturday evening.
"It's disappointing," said Asheville head coach Betsy Blose. "We didn't play defense and didn't rebound. Rebounding is so important because you have to do it on both sides of the court and we let them (KSU) get a lot of second chance points. We've got to get better at that."
Kennesaw scored 30 second chance to just 16 for Asheville. The Owls also outscored the Bulldogs 50-30 in the paint and got a game-high 25 points from forward Sametria Gideon. Asheville falls to 2-6 on the year and remains winless on the road while KSU improves to 4-5 overall.
Jones scored a team-high 20 points for the Blue & White while Gwyn chipped in 18 to the Asheville total. Riles scored 10 and pulled down 14 boards to lead all players.
In the first half Asheville jumped out to an early lead and was able to keep the Owls at arm's length the rest of the frame. The Bulldogs led by as many as 10 before KSU was able to close the gap and cut the lead to 45-41 heading into the break.
Asheville led throughout most of the game, leading by as much as 11 with 5:59 to go. KSU took the lead for the first time with 3:15 to go at 76-75 on an Ashley Holliday layup. Asheville retook the lead on a Grace Blaylock trey with just over two minutes to go, but Gideon would tie the game at 78-78 with 1:43 left on the clock.
Trailing 80-78 with :36 seconds left Gwyn went to the free throw line looking to tie the game, but she converted only one of her attempts. Asheville was forced to foul to try to conserve time but KSU was able to make its free throws to pick up the 83-79 win.
The Blue & White will be back in action on Monday evening when they take on South Carolina State in Orangeburg, S.C. at 6 p.m.
