University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Travel to Gardner-Webb for Regionally Televised Game
02.11.2011 | Men's Basketball
Asheville (12-11, 7-6 BSC) is trying to forget about an ugly 57-53 defeat to Winthrop last Saturday at home. The loss ended a two-game Bulldog winning streak and dropped them into fourth place in the BSC standings. Asheville is in a five-way battle to finish in either third or fourth place in the conference standings and host a quarterfinal game in the league tournament. The Dogs are a half-game behind Winthrop (8-6) in third place and ahead of Charleston Southern (7-7), VMI and High Point (6-8).
The Bulldogs face a well-coached Gardner-Webb (8-17, 3-10 BSC) team that gave Asheville fits at Justice Center on Jan. 15 before the Dogs came away with a 68-59 victory. Tonight's game begins a stretch where the Bulldogs will play their next three conference games away from home sandwiched between a home game against Northeastern next Saturday (Feb. 19) in the ESPNU BracketBuster game. The Dogs play at Charleston Southern Tuesday (Feb. 15) night and then play at league-leader Coastal Carolina (Feb. 22). Asheville ends the regular season with two home games vs. High Point (Feb. 24) and Radford (Feb. 26).
"We didn't play badly against Winthrop but at times we didn't play as smart as we could have," stated Bulldog coach Eddie Biedenbach. "We were beaten badly on the boards and just didn't execute on offense like we should have.
"It's been nice to have a week off and hopefully we'll put the Winthrop game behind us," added Biedenbach.
Biedenbach is quite impressed with Gardner-Webb. The Runnin' Bulldogs are coming off a 63-62 win over Presbyterian College last Saturday.
"Gardner-Webb plays hard for 40 minutes and battles you," commented Biedenbach. "I like the team they have, and we better be ready to match their intensity on Saturday night. They've had some injuries and some close losses but that hasn't stopped them from improving in every game."
Jon Moore leads Gardner-Webb in scoring with a 13.2 average. He didn't play against the Bulldogs last month at Justice Center due to an injury.
Asheville is led by junior guard J.P. Primm with a 15.1 scoring average. Matt Dickey is next with a 14.9 average.
BULLDOG NOTES
UNC Asheville is 4-2 in league road games this season. The Bulldogs have won their four league games by an average of 20 points per game.
The Bulldogs have three players who have scored 1,000 career points playing tonight at Gardner-Webb. Asheville senior forward John Williams has 1,068 points. Junior guard Matt Dickey has 1,039 points, while junior guard J.P. Primm has 1,016 points.
John Williams has enjoyed an amazing career for the Bulldogs. He is just the third player in Big South history to score more than 1,000 points (1,068), grab more than 600 rebounds (627) and block more than 200 shots (233). Williams is the school's all-time leader in blocks and is third in the Big South in that category. His dunk at Liberty (1-27) made ESPN's Top 10 plays of the day. Williams dunk in Asheville's Midnight Madness in October was a YouTube sensation that was featured on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption and SportsNation.
The Bulldogs lead the Big South and are 10th nationally in steals with a 9.4 per game average.
J.P. Primm and Matt Dickey have enjoyed excellent seasons for the Bulldogs and both are ranked all throughout the Big South's statistical categories. Primm is ranked eighth in scoring (15.1), second in assists (4.74), second in steals (2.05), fifth in free throw percentage (81.3%), eighth in three-pointers made (1.78) and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.54). Dickey is ranked ninth in scoring (14.9), seventh in assists (3.39), fourth in free throw percentage (81.9%), third in steals (1.96), eighth in three-pointers made (1.78) and ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.11).
Primm is moving up Asheville's career lists for assists and steals. He is ranked fourth all-time in assists (430) and fourth in steals (161). Primm needs two steals to move past Josh Kohn (162) into third place.
In Asheville's six league losses, they have led in the second half in five of them.
The Bulldogs are 5-0 against Gardner-Webb since joining the Big South. However, none of those wins have been by more than 10 points and the last four have been decided in the final minute of play.
