University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Men's Basketball Opens at Wake Forest Friday Night
11.13.2014 | Men's Basketball
HEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men's basketball team opens the 2014-15 season Friday night when the Bulldogs travel to Wake Forest to take on the Demon Deacons at Joel Coliseum starting at 7 p.m.
Friday's game can be seen on ESPN3 and there will also be an audio-stream of the contest at uncabulldogs.com.
Asheville went 17-15 last season and hopes to start this year a little better than last season when the Bulldogs opened the season with eight straight games away from home and went 1-7.
Second-year coach Nick McDevitt expects a tough challenge from the Deacons under first-year head coach Danny Manning.
“We're going to be at our absolute best on Friday night against Wake Forest,” declared McDevitt. “They have a good team coming back this season, and they look even better this year under Danny Manning.”
Asheville opened exhibition play last Saturday night at Kimmel Arena and used two strong surges in each half to down Brevard College, 81-58. The Bulldogs were led by Andrew Rowsey and freshman Kevin Vannatta with 18 points each.
“I thought we defended pretty well the whole night,” commented McDevitt. “We gave 29 points in each half to a team that can score some points. I like the way we competed on the boards and did some good things overall.
“Obviously, there's still a lot to work on but if we keep working hard than we've got a chance to be a good team,” added McDevitt.
Asheville has one of the youngest teams in the nation this season. The Bulldogs have three seniors and one junior. But the rest of the 16-man roster is made up of freshmen and sophomores.
“We've done a lot of teaching in practice this fall,” admitted McDevitt. “We have some talented young guys but they're going to need some experience. Some of that experience is going to come in games.”
This is the first meeting between Wake Forest and Asheville since the 2005-06 campaign when the Deacons downed the Bulldogs, 79-63 at Joel Coliseum. Wake Forest leads the series, 7-0 but the programs have met just once in the last 30 years since Asheville became a Division I program.
The Bulldogs stay on the road over the weekend and travels to East Carolina Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
BULLDOG NOTES
UNC Asheville is 1-9 in its last 10 games when the Bulldogs open the season on the road. The nine losses have come to Kentucky (2013-14), N.C. State (2011-12), Charlotte (2009-10), Georgia Tech (2005-06), Texas Tech (2004-05), N.C. State (2003-04), Michigan State (2002-03), West Virginia (2001-02) and Missouri (1999-2000). Asheville's lone win came at Auburn to open the 2010-11 season when the Bulldogs rallied past the Tigers, 70-69 in overtime to spoil the opening game of Auburn Arena.
Sophomore guard Andrew Rowsey had the best freshman year in school history last season. He was tabbed Big South Freshman of the Year and earned first-team All-Conference honors as he averaged 20.3 points per game. The Lexington, Va. native set an Asheville single-season record for most three-pointers with 106. He scored in double figures in 31 of the Bulldogs' 32 games. His 20.3 scoring average was the second highest for a freshman in the nation a year ago. Rowsey scored 30 points or more in five different games, including a 41-point explosion at Radford that set a Dedmon Center scoring record. Entering tonight's game, he has scored in double figures in 28 consecutive games. Rowsey made the Big South Preseason All-Conference first team. He is the seventh leading scorer in the nation returning from last year.
Asheville was 5-10 away from home last season.
The Bulldogs have been the best team in the Big South Conference over the last seven seasons, compiling a league mark of 78-40 (.661). Asheville has finished in the top four of the league each season and won two regular-season titles and two tournament titles. The Dogs have appeared in the semifinals of the BSC Tournament seven times in the last eight tourneys.
Asheville will be a little short-handed at Wake Forest as the Bulldogs will not have the services of red-shirt sophomore forward Will Weeks and freshman guard Ahmad Thomas. Weeks, a Big South All-Rookie selection in 2012, missed most of last season with a knee injury. He will miss some time in the early part of the year. Thomas, a freshman guard from Danville, Va., will be out a few games with a leg injury.
