University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Coastal Carolina
Bulldogs Head into Tournament After Saturday Win
02.28.2015 | Women's Basketball
CONWAY, S.C. –The UNC Asheville women's basketball team ended the regular season on a high note Saturday afternoon, opening the afternoon on a 10-2 run before cruising to an 87-53 victory over the host Coastal Carolina Chanticleers inside The HTC Center.
The win locks the Bulldogs (8-21, 7-13 Big South Conference) into the eighth seed for next week's Big South Championships, which will feature a rematch against Coastal (12-17, 6-14 BSC), who dropped to the nine-seed with the loss.
Tuesday's matchup will be the final game of the women's first round and will tip at approximately 6:00 p.m. right back inside The HTC Center. Tuesday night's game will be on the Big South Network.
On Saturday, Asheville snapped a five-game losing streak by seeing four players finish in double figures, led by senior Shonese Jones' 27 points in her 27 minutes of action. Jones was 5-of-9 from behind the three-point line.
K.J. Weaver nearly finished with a double-double, tallying 15 points and eight rebounds. Tianna Knuckles (13 points) and Khaila Webb (11 points) also finished in double figures.
After opening the game on the 10-2 run, the Bulldogs saw Coastal come back and take a one-point lead at the 12:51 mark, which would prove to be the Chanticleers' final lead of the afternoon. The hosts cut the lead to 21-20 with 8:36 to go in the first half, but would get no closer as Asheville pushed the lead out to 18 points at the break.
The second half saw the Bulldog offensive attack continue as Coastal was never able to cut into the lead and make a run as the Asheville defense held the Chats scoreless for over four minutes on two different stretches.
Asheville finished the afternoon shooting 46 percent from the floor on 28-of-61 shooting, including hitting 53 percent of their first half shots. The Dogs were 20-of-27 from the free throw stripe and tallied a 31 percent clip (8-of-26) from three-point range. They hit just two three's in the second half after going 6-of-14 from long range in the first 20 minutes.
Coastal committed 22 turnovers that led to 26 Asheville points, while the Bulldogs doubled up the Chats 32-16 in the paint and saw their bench score 24 points compared to the hosts' 1 bench point.
The Chats' lone senior A.J. Jordan reached the 1,000-point mark in the loss and finished with a game-high 28 points. Anna Vogt added 20 points and six rebounds in the loss.
Asheville returns home tonight to prepare for the Big South Championships before turning around and making a return trip to Conway for the tournament. While full seeding has yet to be determined, the Bulldogs know they will face the Chanticleers again in the No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in the first round of the tournament.
