University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Tennessee
Tennessee Rallies Past UNC Asheville 72-68
12.20.2011 | Men's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, TENN. - Tennessee placed three players in double figures as the Volunteers rallied past UNC Asheville 72-68 at Thompson-Boling Arena Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs (6-5) were led by a season-high 25 points from J.P. Primm, while Jeremy Atkinson added 15 points and Chris Stephenson tallied 10. Senior guard Matt Dickey was held to a season-low seven points.
Tennessee (4-6) was led by Cameron Tatum and Renaldo Woolridge with 17 points each. Kenny Hall finished with 12 points.
Asheville led by 11 in the first half and by 10 points early in the second half but second-chance points and three-point shooting led the Tennessee comeback. The Volunteers had four 3-pointers in the second half, three in a two-minute stretch that gave UT its first lead of the game at 56-55. Tennessee had a 18-6 advantage on second-chance points.
"We played hard and battled but didn't guard the three-point line a couple of times and it cost us," stated Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. "Tennessee did a great job defensively the whole game. We did a solid job scoring 68 points.
"This is a tough one to take," added Biedenbach. "We outplayed Tennessee in a lot of areas but in the end we didn't play well enough to get a win. Hopefully, we learn from this game and become a better team."
Tennessee forged a 67-62 lead with 2:30 left before the Bulldogs rallied and closed to 69-67 when Primm was fouled on a drive to the basket with 42 seconds left. He made only 1-of-2 free throws to cut the lead to 69-68.
The Volunteers went 3-of-4 from the line in the final 20 seconds to hold on. Dickey's three-pointer with 12 seconds left rimmed out that would have tied the game.
The Bulldogs led for the entire first half. Primm had 11 points in the opening half as Asheville built an 11-point lead at 29-18. Jon Nwannunu pumped in eight points in the first half as he went 3-of-4 from the field and collected four rebounds.
Tennessee rallied in the final four minutes of the half behind the shooting of Woolridge. He scored 13 points in the first half and knocked down three treys to help the Volunteers close in on the Bulldogs. His trey with 28 seconds left to go in the half cut the lead to 33-32. Atkinson tapped in a missed Asheville shot as the first-half buzzer sounded giving the Bulldogs a 35-32 halftime lead.
In the first half, Asheville was limited with foul trouble as the Bulldogs top two leading scorers - Matt Dickey and Chris Stephenson - sat out much of the half with two fouls each.
The Bulldogs will have the next eight days off before getting back into action. Asheville travels to Western Carolina on Dec. 28 for a 6 p.m. contest at the Ramsey Center.
