University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Men's Basketball Set to Battle Coastal Carolina on ESPNU
01.21.2015 | Men's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men's basketball team is at home Thursday night when the Bulldogs entertain defending Big South Conference champion Coastal Carolina in a nationally televised game broadcast on ESPNU starting at 7 p.m.
Thursday's game will also be broadcast locally on WWNC Radio (570-AM) and on iHeartRadio with the pre-game show starting at 6:30 p.m. The first 2000 fans will get a free UNC Asheville blue shirt, courtesy of Ingles.
The Bulldogs (8-9, 4-2 BSC) face a tough challenge on Thursday with the Chanticleers (14-4, 5-1 BSC). CCU is tied for first place in the league with High Point (14-4, 5-1 BSC). Asheville travels to High Point Saturday night.
CCU has been one of the top teams in the league for the entire year. They own impressive non-conference victories over Auburn and Louisiana-Monroe and drilled High Point on the road two weeks ago, 83-68. The Chanticleers are one of the top rebounding teams in the nation and are out-rebounding their opponents by more than eight per game.
Asheville fell at Charleston Southern, 82-75 Monday night to finish 1-1 on its weekend road trip. The Bulldogs defeated Campbell on Saturday, 69-65.
Rebounding was the key reason for Asheville's loss to the Buccaneers Monday night. CSU out-rebounded the Dogs, 43-26 and had 21 offensive rebounds to just nine for Asheville.
“We just didn't rebound at Charleston Southern. We let their guards score 57 points but if we had rebounded just a little better then we could have won the game,” explained McDevitt.
“To have any chance to beat Coastal Carolina, we're going to have to rebound better than we have all year,” added McDevitt. “We saw great guards at Charleston Southern and we're going to see some great ones for Coastal Carolina. Our defense will have to be better, as well.”
A bright spot this weekend was the play of sophomore guard Andrew Rowsey. He scored 19 points at Campbell and added five assists. Rowsey then exploded for a season-high of 34 points at Charleston Southern Monday night. He has regained the Big South Conference lead in scoring and tops the league at 19.7 points.
Rowsey has a chance for a big milestone on Thursday. He has scored 973 career points and needs just 17 to reach 1,000 career points, making him the first Bulldog in school history to reach that plateau in his sophomore year.
Sophomore guard David Robertson has been a great backcourt mate to Rowsey. He's second on the team in scoring with a 12.2 average. Robertson has scored at least 20 points in two of the last four games, including 21 at Campbell Saturday afternoon.
Senior center Jaleel Roberts continues to play well for Asheville. He's the Dogs top rebounder at 5.8 per game and leads the league in blocked shots with 49. His 3.06 per game average has him 10th national. He blocked three shots at Charleston Southern on Monday to give him a career total of 101. Roberts is the 36th player in Big South history to block at least 100 shots.
Jaleel's offensive game has been coming as well. He went 7-of-7 from the field at Campbell to finish with 14 points and then pumped in 11 points at CSU on 5-of-7 shooting.
The Bulldogs are in a tough part of their schedule as 48 hours after they play Coastal Carolina, they'll travel to face Big South co-leader High Point Saturday night at 7 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES
Coastal Carolina leads the all-time series, 34-32 with the teams splitting games last year. The Chants held on to defeat the Dogs, 81-78 in Conway before Asheville downed CCU at Kimmel, 100-85.
Andrew Rowsey has scored in double figures in 45 of 49 games in his career. He has scored 30 points or more in seven different games. Rowsey leads the Big South Conference in scoring (19.7) and free throw percentage (.909). He is second in three-pointers made (3.24), third in steals (3.41), fourth in three-point percentage (.353), sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.71) and seventh in assists (3.41).
The Bulldogs are 41-11 all-time at Kimmel Arena. Asheville is 29-5 against Big South Conference opponents. However, the Dogs fell to Winthrop last week, 84-69 in their last game at home. It was Asheville's worst conference home loss at Kimmel Arena.
Sophomore guard David Robertson has scored in double figures in 12 of the last 15 games.
Jaleel Roberts became the 36th player in Big South history to record 100 career blocked shots on Monday at CSU. He enters tonight's game with 101. The Bulldog program is well represented on that list with DJ Cunningham, John Williams, Robert Stephenson, Adam Earnhardt and Kenny George in the 100-block club.
Asheville is 7-1 when it out-rebounds its opponents.
Despite allowing more than 80 points in two of their last three games, the Bulldogs are tied for league lead in points allowed at 66.7 in six BSC games. In Asheville's four wins, they have allowed just 58.5 points per game.
