University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Face Coastal Carolina in Homecoming Season Finale
02.26.2016 | Men's Basketball
THE MATCHUP
Teams: Asheville (19-10, 12-5 BSC)
Coastal Carolina (17-10, 11-6 BSC)
Location: Kimmel Arena / Asheville, N.C.
Time: 4:30 p.m.
VIDEO (ESPN3) - AUDIO (Bulldog Radio Network)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – UNC Asheville closes the regular season on Saturday afternoon when the Bulldogs welcome Coastal Carolina to Kimmel Arena on Homecoming Weekend in Asheville. The Bulldogs enter Saturday locked in a three-way tie for first place atop the league standings on the schedule's final day.
A win Saturday will give the Bulldogs a share of the Big South Regular Season Championship, regardless of the results of Winthrop and High Point in its games. Mathematically, Asheville can still draw anywhere from the No. 1 seed down to the No. 4 seed in next week's Big South Championships at Campbell. A win would move Asheville into the top three seeds for the tournament, dependent on the other team's results, while a Bulldog loss Saturday would drop them into the No. 4 seed.
NOTABLES
Scoring Smith: Freshman Dylan Smith is on the verge of joining a list of 22 Big South freshman to score 400+ points in their first season. Smith enters Saturday's regular season finale 10 points shy of the mark, and is averaging 13.4 points per game this season.
Kimmel Magic: Asheville is 11-2 inside Kimmel Arena this season (7-1 in BSC) The Bulldogs are 55-16 overall inside now-five year old Kimmel, a winning percentage that grows to 39-9 in Big South contests played in the building.
Senior Day: Saturday marks Senior Day for Sam Hughes and John Cannon. Cannon has played in 14 games for the Bulldogs this season, accumulating 52 career points and pulling down 25 rebounds in his one season in Asheville. A 61 percent shooter, John has added eight blocks this season. Hughes has appeared in 122 games for the Bulldogs with 73 starts over his four year career with over 2,400 minutes played. Sam has tallied 843 career points along with 415 rebounds and has passed out 121 assists and grabbed 106 steals while wearing the Blue & White.
In the Series: Saturday's meeting will be the 71st meeting all-time between Asheville and Coastal, with the Bulldogs trailing 37-33 in the series. Coastal won the teams first meeting this season, 68-66 in overtime. Saturday marks the final regular season meeting between Asheville and Coastal Carolina as Big South Conference foes. The teams first met way back on November 17, 1984 in the first-ever head-to-head matchup between Big South members. -That first game, played in Asheville's Justice Center, was a 59-57 Bulldog victory.
UP NEXT
-Following Saturday's game, the Bulldogs will wait to see the outcomes of other league games, particularly Winthrop and High Point's matchups, before the final bracket and seedings for next week's Big South Championship is set.
