University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Open Key Stretch at Campbell Saturday
02.05.2016 | Men's Basketball
THE MATCHUP
Teams: Asheville (16-8, 9-3 BSC)
Campbell (8-14, 2-10 BSC)
Location: Gore Arena / Buies Creek, N.C.
Time: 2:00 p.m.
VIDEO (Big South Network) - AUDIO (Bulldog Radio Network) - LIVE STATS
BUIES CREEK, N.C. – UNC Asheville hits the road to take on Campbell on Saturday afternoon in the first game of a key, late season road trip that has the Bulldogs playing three of their next four games on the road. Asheville has won two games in a row, while Campbell enters the game on a nine-game losing streak and still in search of its first win of the 2016 calendar year.
Asheville begins Saturday alone atop the Big South Conference standings, one game ahead of Coastal Carolina and Winthrop. Winthrop has the day off, while Coastal plays on the road at Radford.
NOTABLES
Defending the Three: Asheville leads the Big South Conference in defending opponents' three-point shooting percentages and ranks seventh in the nation in three-point percentage defense, with opponents connecting on just 28.8 percent beyond the arc.
Controlling the Glass: Despite its perceived height disadvantage, Asheville has won the rebounding battle in 16 of its 23 games this season and is 12-4 when outrebounding its opponents. The Bulldogs are 3-4 when losing the rebounding battle, with victories over Georgetown, Furman and Charleston Southern.
Turnovers Anyone?: The Bulldogs have won the turnover battle in 16 of 23 games this season, including each of the last 14 games dating back to Dec. 15 against ETSU. Asheville is 10-4 over that stretch, including a 7-3 record over Big South opponents.
Logging Minutes: Asheville has seven players averaging 20 or more minutes per night, with Kevin Vannatta's 34.1 minutes/game leading all BSC players. In Big South play, the Bulldogs have two players logging 30+ minutes per game: Vannatta (35.1) and Ahmad Thomas (31.6), while Sutton is averaging 29.7 minutes/game through 12 Big South Conference games entering Saturday afternoon.
In the Series: Saturday's game will be the 40th all-time meeting between Asheville and Campbell, with the Bulldogs leading the all-time series 20-19 since the teams' first meeting during the 1967-68 season. Asheville as had all the momentum recently, as the Bulldogs have gone 7-0 against the Camels since Campbell rejoined the Big South Conference prior to the 2011-2012 season, including a home victory earlier this season inside Kimmel Arena, and a sweep in last year's matchups.
UP NEXT
-Following Saturday's game, Asheville returns home to prepare for a big Thursday night matchup inside Kimmel Arena against Radford. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU and the tipoff time has been moved to 9:00 p.m. to accommodate the national television audience.
