Women's Basketball Entertains Brevard in Exhibition Game Saturday Starting at 5 p.m.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville women's basketball team plays its first and only exhibition game this Saturday night at Kimmel Arena when the Bulldogs host Brevard College starting at 5 p.m. Tickets are available at uncabulldogs.com/tickets.

Saturday's exhibition tilt can be seen for free on the Big South Network under the multimedia tag at uncabulldogs.com.

There's a great deal of optimism with this year's Bulldog squad. Third-year head coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick welcomes back 11 letterwinners and five starters from last year's squad. Asheville was much improved in 2013-14 going from 2-28 in 2012-13 to 11-20 last season.

The Bulldogs expect a tough challenge from Brevard. The Tornados return most of their squad from last year's team that went 7-19.

"We are very excited to finally have the opportunity to play in front of our home fans on Saturday against a tough opponent. Brevard will be a great challenge for us as they have the bulk of their production returning and play extremely hard on both ends of the floor,” stated Kirkpatrick. “We also have an experienced squad and tremendous leadership on the floor this year with five seniors. It's an exciting time for us and our fans. We are looking forward to it."

This is the first time the schools have ever met in an exhibition game. The teams have met twice in the regular season with Brevard stunning the Bulldogs at Justice Center in the 2010-11 season, 71-61. Asheville earned a 74-62 win the next season at Kimmel Arena.

The Bulldogs return last year's leading scorer in senior guard Shonese Jones (10.4). Also returns is junior guard Paige Love. Love was third in scoring for the Bulldogs last season with a 9.3 mark and led the team in rebounding with a 5.2 average. She earned a spot on the Big South Preseason All-Conference second team last month.

Asheville opens the regular season next Friday (Nov. 14) night at home when the Bulldogs welcome ETSU to Kimmel Arena. The game starts at 7 p.m.