Women's Basketball Hosts Gardner-Webb on Saturday

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville women's basketball team get back in action Saturday afternoon when the Bulldogs entertain defending Big South Conference champion Gardner-Webb at Kimmel Arena starting at 2 p.m. Saturday's game will be broadcast locally on WPEK (880-AM). The game will also be video-streamed at www.uncabulldogs.com.

Asheville (6-11, 2-4 BSC) looks to snap a two-game losing streak on Saturday. The Bulldogs lost a pair of road games last weekend to Winthrop (84-68) on Saturday and Presbyterian College (62-54) Monday night.

"We battled in both games but just didn't play well as we could have," commented Asheville coach Betsy Blose. "We're glad to return home and hopefully keep up our winning ways.

The Bulldogs are 6-2 at Kimmel Arena and have won four straight here.

Gardner-Webb has struggled in the first half of the season. The Runnin' Bulldogs won their first BSC title last year and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. GWU is 2-14 on the year and 1-5 in BSC play.

"Gardner-Webb had a very tough non-conference schedule but you can tell they're getting better and better with each game," stated Blose. "We better be ready to play hard for 40 minutes."

Gardner-Webb and Asheville have played six times over the past two years as they've met in the quarterfinals of the league tournament with the Runnin' Bulldogs winning each time. GWU has taken five out of those six meetings but four of those games have come down to the final minute of play.

Saturday's game starts a three-game homestand for the Bulldogs at Kimmel. Asheville hosts Liberty next Saturday (Jan. 28) and Radford on Jan. 30.

BULLDOG NOTES

Freshman guard Shonese Jones was named Big South Freshman of the Week on Monday for her play last weekend. She scored 15 points at Winthrop and 16 at PC. Jones has been named Freshman of the Week twice this year and Player of the Week once.

Freshman forward Leah Wormack has been named Big South Freshman of the Week three times this year.

Kelli Riles leads the Big South and is fifth nationally in rebounding with an 11.8 average. She has 634 career rebounds and is in eighth place on the school's all-time list.

Asheville leads the all-time series 18-9 but Gardner-Webb has won seven of the last nine meetings between the teams.

Bulldog assistant coach Tiffany Gwynn played and coached with Gardner-Webb head coach Rick Reeves. She played for him at Liberty and coached with him at Southern Mississippi.

Lindsey Thompson is closing in 1,000 career points. She has 954 points going into Saturday's action.

Grace Blaylock has 38 field goals on the season, 36 from long-distance. She set a single-game school record for three-pointers made in a game at Winthrop last week with seven.