University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Liberty
Women's Basketball Falls Just Short at Liberty, 62-58
01.27.2015 | Women's Basketball
LYNCHBURG, Va. – The UNC Asheville women's basketball team battled Big South leader Liberty to the wire on Tuesday night but fell just short of a huge road upset as the Lady Flames held off the Bulldogs, 62-58 at the Vines Center.
Senior guard Brittany Gwyn was brilliant for Asheville (5-15, 4-7 BSC) as she finished with a season-high 17 points. She went 5-of-6 from beyond the arc and also had a season-best seven assists. Her five treys is a new career high.
Liberty improved to 14-6 and 10-1 in the Big South.
"I thought we played a solid game. We just need to clean up a couple of things and become more solid at end of game situations. That is where Liberty executed a little better,” stated Bulldog coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick. “It is always going to be tough to beat a team that shoots 50 percent and rebounds half of their misses."
Liberty shot 50 percent (25-of-5) from the field for the game and 47 percent (7-of-15) from the three-point line. The Bulldogs shot 45 percent (22-of-49) from the field and a season-high 56 percent (9-of-16) from beyond the arc.
The Lady Flames were led by Sadalia Ellis with 17 points.
Asheville freshman Bre Fitzgerald added nine points and six rebounds. Shonese Jones and KJ Weaver finished with eight points each. Weaver was 4-of-4 from the field.
Tuesday's game was close all the way as neither team led by more than six points until late in the contest. The Bulldogs led by four in the first half before Liberty settled for a 35-32 halftime lead.
In the second half, Liberty led 56-50 with 4:35 left. Gwyn knocked a trey to close to 56-53 at the four-minute mark. The Bulldogs had two chances to get closer but couldn't score.
The Flames scored the next six points to finally get some separation from the Bulldogs as they led 62-53 on a tap-in from Ashley Rininger at the 35-second mark. Asheville scored the final five points of the game to close to 62-58.
The Bulldogs play again Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. when they host Presbyterian College at Kimmel Arena in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN3.
