University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Coastal Carolina
Bulldogs Fall to Coastal; Enter Tourney as No. 4 Seed Friday
02.27.2016 | Men's Basketball
THE RUNDOWN
Score: Coastal Carolina 81 – Asheville 79
Teams: Asheville (19-10, 12-5 BSC)
Coastal Carolina (17-10, 11-6 BSC)
Location: Kimmel Arena / Asheville, N.C.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – UNC Asheville dug out of a 14-point halftime deficit throughout the second half but was unable to hit a shot in the closing moments as Coastal Carolina escaped a sold out Kimmel Arena with an 81-79 victory.
The loss locks the Bulldogs into the No. 4 seed in next week's Big South Championships, with Asheville's first game coming Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. against Liberty, who finished the regular season 13-18 overall but with a 10-8 league record. The Bulldogs won both regular season meetings.
THE TURNING POINT
Coastal went to the free throw line 27 times in the game, hitting 20 of its attempts (74 percent). Asheville was just 7-of-14 from the stripe, with all 14 trips to line coming in the second half.
NOTABLES
-Four Bulldogs finished in double-figures in the loss, led by freshman Dwayne Sutton's game-high 24 points. Sutton added eight rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal to his 37 minutes of action.
-Dylan Smith (16 points) tallied all but two of his points in the second half, while Sam Hughes and Ahmad Thomas each finished with 15 points.
-Coastal pushed its halftime lead to as high as 20 points at the 17:33 mark before the Bulldogs clawed back into the game on the heels of a 23-7 run over the next 8:59. Trailing by six at the under eight minute media timeout, the teams traded buckets until the 1:39 mark – Coastal's last field goal from the floor. The visitors hit six of their last seven free throws to close the game.
-Asheville was consistent shooting throughout the game, finishing the night at 51.6 percent from the floor (32-of-62), while Coastal cooled off to 52.9 percent (27-of-51) after shooting 60 percent in the opening 20 minutes.
-Neither team shot well from three-point range, with Asheville shooting 36.4 percent (8-of-22) from distance, while Coastal hit seven of its 16 attempts (44 percent).
-Coastal finished the night with advantages is almost every special category, including points in the paint (38-34), points off turnovers (22-17), second chance points (19-10) and bench scoring (17-15).
-Asheville was outrebounded by nine boards (38-29) and lost the rebounding battle for just the 10th time this season. The Bulldogs are now 4-6 when being outrebounded.
QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH NICK McDEVITT
On the game – “Tonight we just dug ourselves too big of a hole. I was proud of our effort in the second half to continue fighting and give ourselves a chance to win the game, but at the same time we shouldn't have put ourselves in that position due to what we did in the first half.”
On the defense – “It's a testament to our player's toughness, character and willingness to keep fighting and battling even when faced with adversity. We've been in that situation where we've faced big deficits but continued to stay together, continued to fight and down the stretch have a chance to win.”
On the Liberty matchup – “Whoever you face in the tournament is going to be a good team. Certainly playing Liberty and winning Friday's game and advancing will be difficult. They are a good basketball team, they are well coached and have played well as of late. The second half of the season they have been one of the better teams in the league. We have to go into next Friday focused on Liberty and Liberty alone.”
UP NEXT
-Following tonight's loss, the Bulldogs will prepare for their first game in the Big South Championship next Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. against Liberty. Asheville was 2-0 against the Flames this season.
