University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Georgetown
Bulldogs Stun Georgetown, Grab 79-73 Victory
12.19.2015 | Men's Basketball
THE RUNDOWN
Score: Asheville 79 – Georgetown 73
Teams: Asheville (7-4, 1-0 BSC)
Georgetown (6-5, 0-0 Big East)
Location: Verizon Center/Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Visiting UNC Asheville led for 33 minutes and came into the Verizon Center Saturday afternoon and grabbed a 79-74 victory over Georgetown as the Bulldogs won their fifth straight game.
THE TURNING POINT
After a Georgetown three-pointer cut the lead to 63-60 with 9:26 remaining, Bulldog freshman Dylan Smith answered with a three of his own to push the advantage back to six and end a 6-2 Georgetown run. Later in the half, a Georgetown free throw pulled them within one point with 1:34 remaining before Ahmad Thomas' layup and five Asheville free throws in the last 90 seconds wrapped things up.
NOTABLES
-Five Bulldogs finished in double-figures, including Smith's game-high 19 points and Thomas' 12-point, 10 rebound effort. Dwayne Sutton tallied 17 points, Kevin Vannatta notched 14 points and Will Weeks finished with 11 points.
-Entering the day averaging 14 turnovers, Asheville turned the ball over just nine times in the win. The Bulldogs were out-rebounded for this first time this season (39-34), but pulled down 26 defensive boards.
-The Bulldogs finished the afternoon shooting 46 percent (26-of-56) from the floor and hit nine three-pointers (47 percent). Asheville knocked down 18 of their 27 free throw attempts.
-Defensively, Asheville held Georgetown to just 4-of-22 shooting (18 percent) from three-point range and 46 percent (26-of-57) from the floor. The Hoyas were 17-of-27 from the free throw stripe. The Bulldogs held Georgetown senior D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera to seven points after he entered the game averaging a Georgetown team-high 16.2 points per game.
-Seven of the nine Asheville players who logged action scored, and the Bulldog bench out-scored Georgetown 34-26.
-Asheville's current five-game winning streak is its longest since December of the 2013-2014 campaign.
-The Bulldogs are now 1-1 against Georgetown all-time and have now won their last two meetings against Big East member schools (today and a 72-65 win at St. John's on Dec. 21, 2012).
QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH NICK McDEVITT
On the win – “I am really proud of the way these young men played today. I thought when we built an eight or nine-point lead and Georgetown came back and tied the game...usually you see a team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores get rattled. We held our composure, stayed together and came out of here with the win.”
On using different defenses – “When you are facing good players like Georgetown has, it is important to keep them off balance. I thought that switching defenses, we were able to do that. We knew we were at a disadvantage with our size, so we tried to use our quickness and length around the perimeter to negate some of that size.”
On the team's play against the larger Georgetown team – “If you can defend and rebound as a smaller team, then you are awfully versatile and can pass and catch quickly on the other end. Right now we are doing a nice job of rebounding and defending as a team. What that forces is (bigger guys) to chase quicker, smaller guys.”
On the team – “It's a fun group and special group to coach. They love playing with each other. They share the ball. One night it's someone and the next night it can be someone else. It makes you more difficult to defend when there's five or six guys who can put up big numbers. We have very balanced scoring, so teams can't key in on one guy and cut the head off the snake, and that's what makes us tough to defend.
UP NEXT
-After today's win, the Bulldogs return home for a Monday night matchup against Elon with a 7:00 p.m. tipoff. The game will be Asheville's final matchup prior to the holiday break. Monday night's game can be heard on the Bulldog Radio Network and seen on the Big South Network.
