University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Campbell
Five Score Double-Figures as Bulldogs Down Campbell
02.06.2016 | Men's Basketball
Score: Asheville 81 - Campbell 71
Teams: Asheville (17-8, 10-3 BSC)
Campbell (8-15, 2-11 BSC)
Location: Gore Arena / Buies Creek, N.C.
BUIES CREEK, N.C. – UNC Asheville forced 19 Campbell turnovers on Saturday afternoon, collecting 26 points off the misplays on the way to an 81-71 Bulldog road win at the site of the Big South Men's Basketball Championships in just under a month.
The Asheville win keeps the Bulldogs first place all by themselves as they hit the 10-league victory mark. Coastal Carolina also won Saturday to remain a game back.
THE TURNING POINT
Asheville finished the afternoon with 16 steals, including 10 pickpockets in the second half that led to 15 second half points.
Down two entering the final minute of the opening half, Asheville hit four free throws over the final 60 seconds to stake themselves to a 34-32 halftime advantage. The Bulldogs never trailed in the second half, leading by as many as 13 points on the way to the win.
NOTABLES
-Five Bulldogs finished in double figures scoring, led by 17 point each from Sam Hughes and Dylan Smith. Hughes filled his stat line with five rebounds and four blocks, while Smith passed out a game-high five assists. Kevin Vannatta tallied 16 points and Ahmad Thomas added 10 points, while Will Weeks came off the bench to give Asheville 12 of its 18 total bench points.
-Dwayne Sutton (three points) and Weeks each pulled down seven rebounds in the win, the high mark for either side.
-Both teams finished with the same number of total made shots and made three-pointers (23 shots, four three-pointers) as Asheville tallied a 44 percent shooting mark and Campbell shot at a 40 percent clip. The Bulldogs finished better from three-point range (33 percent, 4-12) as Campbell attempted more long range shots (4-20, 20 percent).
-The Bulldogs got themselves to the free throw line 17 more times than Campbell in the win, knocking down 10 more attempts than the hosts as Asheville finished the afternoon shooting 71 percent from the line (31-44) while Campbell hit 21-of-27 free throws (78 percent).
-With 16 steals and forcing 19 total turnovers, Asheville won the turnover battle for the 15th consecutive game, and have now done so in 17 of its 25 games this season. The Bulldogs outrebounded Campbell 37-33 in the win, marking the 17th time Asheville has won both the rebounding battle and the game.
-Campbell had four players finish in double figures in the loss, led by Chris Clemons' game-high 18-point afternoon. Troy Harper and D.J. Mason each tallied 17 points and Khadre Lane finished with 10 points.
QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH NICK McDEVITT
On the game – “Anytime you can find a way to win on the road, you have to do a lot of good things. I thought tonight we got some big minutes from Alec Wnuk, Raekwon Miller and Trae Bryant (29 total minutes). We were in a little bit of foul trouble in the first half with several players and those guys gave us some real good minutes.”
On the Second Half Defense – “We were able to get a couple baskets out in transition due to some turnovers we forced, both in man defense and in the zone. I wasn't happy with our number of turnovers, but with winning the turnover margin, it allowed us to get some easy ones during the course of the game.”
UP NEXT
-Following today's win, 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.
