University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Women's Basketball at South Florida on Saturday at 2 p.m.
11.21.2014 | Women's Basketball
TAMPA, Fla. – The UNC Asheville women's basketball team continues its tough early-season schedule when the Bulldogs travel to #25 South Florida Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Saturday's contest with USF will be broadcast locally on WPEK (880-AM) radio with the pre-game show starting at 1:50 p.m.
Asheville (0-2) faces a South Florida team that is 2-1 on the season with wins over Villanova and Chattanooga and an 85-67 loss at #8 Maryland Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs have faced a demanding schedule in the early part of the year with an 81-68 loss to ETSU last Friday night at home and a 63-46 defeat to MEAC-favorite North Carolina A&T Tuesday evening in Greensboro. Ironically, USF played North Carolina last season in the first round of the WNIT.
“We are excited for another challenge on Saturday and the opportunity to play a nationally-ranked team in South Florida,” stated Asheville coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick. “They are a great transition team and have one of the nation's best scoring guards in Courtney Williams. We will need to value possession and play great team defense to have an opportunity to win.”
The teams have met once before and that game took place two years at Kimmel Arena as a veteran South Florida team downed an injury-plagued Bulldog squad, 77-29.
Tianna Knuckles leads the Bulldogs in scoring with a 12.0 average. She scored 19 points in the season-opener vs. ETSU. Junior guard Paige Love scored a team-high 14 points against the Aggies.
Asheville returns home on Monday night to host Barton College at Kimmel Arena starting at 7 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES
South Florida is the second of seven teams that Asheville will play this year that appeared in post-season play in 2014.
The Bulldogs were 3-10 on the road last year.
This is Asheville's first game against a ranked opponent since playing at North Carolina on Nov. 25, 2012.
Senior guard Shonese Jones scored her 1,000th career point vs. Coastal Carolina in the final game of the regular season last year. She now has 1,042 career points and is in 13th place on the school's career scoring list.
This is the Bulldogs first ever game at USF. This is Asheville's first game in the state of Florida since playing in a tournament at the University of Florida in the 2007-08 season.
