University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Women's Basketball Hosts ETSU in Season-Opener Friday Night at 7 p.m.
11.13.2014 | Women's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville women's basketball team opens the 2014-15 season at home Friday night when the Bulldogs host East Tennessee of the Southern Conference starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at uncabulldogs.com.
Friday's game can be seen for free on the Big South Network under the multimedia tag at uncabulldogs.com.
Asheville is excited about the upcoming season. The Bulldogs return all five starters and 11 letterwinners from last year's club that went 11-20, improving from a 2-28 campaign the year before.
The Blue & White won its only exhibition game as it defeated Brevard, 74-54 at Kimmel Arena last Saturday night. ETSU went 2-0 in exhibition play, including a wild 73-71 victory over King College on Saturday. The Lady Bucs trailed by 30 points in the second half before coming back to win.
“Friday night will be a tremendous opening test for us. ETSU is a very good basketball team with strong interior presence and a great transition game,” stated third-year head coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick. “I am excited for our season to officially begin and look forward to the challenge that the Bucs will present. I expect an exciting game for fans with this regional match-up that we look forward to continuing in the future.”
This is the first meeting between the programs since the 2007-08 season when ETSU downed Asheville, 72-53 in Johnson City. Tonight's game marks the first time the Lady Bucs have played in Kimmel Arena.
Asheville was led last Saturday by sophomore center KJ Weaver with a double-double as she scored 19 points and collected 11 rebounds. She was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field. The Bulldogs also picked up 14 points and nine rebounds from Tianna Knuckles. Shonese Jones and Chatori Major added nine points each. Asheville held a 54-34 rebounding advantage as it had 20 offensive rebounds.
The Bulldogs are on the road for their next two games as they'll play at MEAC favorite North Carolina A&T on Tuesday and at South Florida next Saturday (Nov. 22). Asheville returns home to host Barton on Monday, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES
Asheville has won three of its last four opening-games. It will be hard to top last season when Paige Love hit a buzzer-beating shot from beyond half-court to give the Bulldogs a 69-66 win over Furman.
Senior guard Shonese Jones will be honored prior to tomorrow's game. She scored her 1,000th point in the final regular season game of the year against Coastal Carolina. Jones became the 14th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. She enters this season with 1,027 points, good for 13th on the school's all-time list.
Asheville returns five starters back from last year's club. This marks the first time the Bulldogs have returned five starters back since the 2004-05 season.
Friday's game against ETSU will mark the first of four games the Bulldogs will play against teams from the Southern Conference this year. Asheville hosts Wofford (Dec. 6) and Western Carolina (Dec. 17) and travels to Furman (Dec. 10).
The Lady Bucs have dominated the series with Asheville as ETSU holds a 16-1 advantage. Asheville's lone win came in the 2003-04 season the Bulldogs downed the Bucs, 55-49 at Justice Center.
