University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Set for Middle Tennessee in Friday's Shootout Action
11.27.2015 | Men's Basketball
THE MATCHUP
Great Alaska Shootout
Teams: Asheville (1-3, 0-0 BSC)
Middle Tennessee (1-1, 0-0 CUSA)
Location: Alaska Airlines Center/Anchorage, AK
Time: 8:00 p.m. AST/12:00 a.m. EST
LIVE AUDIO (Bulldog Radio Network) - LIVE STATS
ANCHORAGE, AK – The UNC Asheville men's basketball team will look to stay hot on Friday night as they take on Middle Tennessee in the semifinals of the 2015 GCI Great Alaska Shootout. The Bulldogs are coming off of a 85-66 Thursday win over Drexel, while Middle Tennessee was a 75-72 winner over host Alaska-Anchorage.
Friday night's game can be heard LIVE on the Bulldog Radio Network on WWNC 570 AM in the Asheville area or online anywhere via the iHeartRadio app. The game will be shown on TAPE DELAY on CBS Sports Network at 2:00 a.m. EST (10:00 p.m. AST).
NOTABLES
Bulldogs Open with a Win: Four players finished with double-figure scoring nights to lead the UNC Asheville men's basketball team past Drexel with an 85-66 victory in the opening round of the 2015 GCI Great Alaska Shootout on Thursday. Sam Hughes finished with 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting to lead the Bulldogs and filled his stat line with five rebounds, two assists and a block in addition to his point total in 33 minutes of action. Dwayne Sutton just missed out on another double-double effort as he finished with 14 points for the second consecutive game and added nine rebounds and two assists. Ahmad Thomas collected 14 points, six rebounds and three assists, while David Robertson finished with 13 points and four assists.
Middle Tennessee: The Blue Raiders enter Friday night's game on the heels of a three-point victory over tournament host Alaska-Anchorage in their opening game. Perrin Buford led the way for Middle Tennessee with 18 points while Giddy Potts had 16 points.
In the Series: The teams have meet three times in Asheville program history, none recently, as the Bulldogs are 0-3 all-time against Middle Tennessee. The teams haven't met since the 1978-79 season (98-61 MT win) and also previously played in the 1972-73 season (87-72 MT win) and the 1977-78 season (74-62 MT win). This will be the first neutral site meeting between the teams. The three previous matchups were all at Middle Tennessee.
Tourney Victory: The Bulldog win on Thursday was Asheville's first tournament win since Nov. 26, 2011 against Utah, an 87-65 victory, in the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Bulldogs had been 0-7 and 1-9 in their last 10 tournament matchups (Battle 4 Atlantis (2011-12), Puerto Rico Tipoff Tournament (2012-13), Preseason NIT (2013-14)) prior to Thursday night's victory.
Super Sam: Senior Sam Hughes turned in his best effort of the season Thursday night with his 18-point performance. Hughes, listed at 6-4, battled away inside against Drexel while giving up 3-5 inches of height. Not afraid of contact, Hughes went to the line a game-high 10 times and his 18 points were just shy of his career-best, a 22-point effort last season against Big South foe Gardner-Webb.
QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH NICK McDEVITT
On the quick turnaround – “This is tough for any team, but for our young team with Middle Tennessee coming is a challenge. We look forward to it. It's important they take care of their bodies in between the games with treatment and rest and we have to be smart with how we handle the time in between games. It'll take this same effort (today) to beat Middle Tennessee to get to the finals.”
Initial thoughts on Middle Tennessee – “They do some things differently on the defensive end of the floor. Looking out there (Thursday) they were in a 1-3-1 gap and then falling back into a 2-3 zone in the same possession. That's something a little bit unusual, but something we have seen in the past. Coastal Carolina has done that before. But it can keep teams off balance if you struggle to recognize it. When you have three freshmen guards like we do, sometimes playing a defense like that can keep you off balance and trick you offensively. We'll have to make sure we recognize what they are doing on the defensive end of the floor so that we can continue to attack the defense all night.”
UP NEXT
-A Friday night victory would put Asheville in the Championship game, to be played Saturday night against the winner of the Toledo/Loyola Chicago game. A loss gives the Bulldogs a matchup against the Toledo/Loyola Chicago loser earlier in the day on Saturday.
