University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Radford
Late Radford Bucket Sinks Bulldogs Thursday Night
02.12.2016 | Men's Basketball
THE RUNDOWN
Score: Radford 60 – Asheville 59
Teams: Asheville (17-9, 10-4 BSC)
Radford (14-11, 7-6 BSC)
Location: Kimmel Arena / Asheville, N.C.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – UNC Asheville gave up six turnovers in the final two minutes Thursday night and Radford hit a layup with 15 seconds to go for its only second-half lead as Radford escaped Kimmel Arena with a 60-59 win.
The Bulldogs remain in first place in the Big South standings by a half game after Winthrop won earlier Thursday night to move to 9-4 in league play.
THE TURNING POINT
Asheville turned the ball over 17 times, including nine times in the second half, as Radford used the miscues to score 19 points off turnovers. Radford also won the battle on the glass 39-29 and outscored the Bulldogs 20-13 off of second chance points.
The Bulldogs did not score in the final 3:18 of the game, while Radford was 2-of-3 from the floor and added a free throw and a pair of steals over the same time frame to grab the late go-ahead basket.
NOTABLES
-Three Bulldogs accounted for 42 of the team's 59 total points, with Dwayne Sutton leading the way for Asheville with 16 points in the loss. Ahmad Thomas tallied 14 points as he and Sutton each grabbed seven rebounds, while Dylan Smith finished with 12 points. The trio combined to go 17-of-31 from the floor (54.8 percent)
-Will Weeks tallied nine points off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting, while Kevin Vannatta and Sam Hughes each finished with four points.
-Asheville outshot Radford from the floor, finishing 25-of-48 (52 percent), while the Highlanders were 43.6 percent shooters (24-55) on the night. Radford hit six of its 18 three-point attempts, while Asheville was just 1-of-5 from long distance, with the lone make coming from Sutton at the 9:23 mark of the first half.
-Both teams went to the free throw line 14 times, with Asheville hitting two more attempts (eight total) than Radford (six).
-The loss was the ninth time this season that Asheville has been outrebounded, as the Bulldogs fell to 3-6 in games when losing the battle on the glass. The Bulldogs lost the turnover battle for just the seventh time this season, and the first time in their last 16 games, dating back to Dec. 15 against ETSU.
-Radford had two players finish in double figures in the win, led by Cameron Jones' game-high 21 points and Rashun Davis' 16-point night.
QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH NICK McDEVITT
On the game – “We didn't execute down the stretch. We had some unforced turnover, and some forced turnovers. You have to give Radford credit, they pressured the ball a lot. Too many turnovers and gave up too many offensive rebounds to win a game. The last play didn't go in the direction we wanted it to. There were multiple plays down the stretch where we didn't execute. We had some plays where we wanted the ball to go inside, and a combination of not demanding the ball in the post and Radford's pressure on the perimeter ran us out of stuff.”
UP NEXT
-Following tonight's loss, Asheville is now off for the weekend before hitting the road to play at Presbyterian next Thursday, February 18.
