University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Villanova
Bulldogs Fall to Villanova in NCAA Tournament
03.18.2016 | Men's Basketball
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – UNC Asheville's magical season ended with a loss to national power Villanova in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Barclays Center Friday afternoon.
The second-seeded Wildcats (30-5) used a late run at the end of the first-half and red-hot shooting in the second half to down the Bulldogs 86-56.
Freshman guard Dylan Smith led Asheville (22-12) with 14 points, while fellow freshman Dwayne Sutton finished with 11 points. Senior forward Sam Hughes, playing in his final game as a Bulldog, chipped in 10 points. Ahmad Thomas collected nine rebounds.
“They're a good basketball team, really good,” said Asheville coach Nick McDevitt of the Wildcats, who have won three games in their last five tournament appearances after making the Final Four in 2009.
“I told our team before the game that I didn't think we had to play perfect to win the game, but we had to play really, really good. And close to perfect. And we didn't."
Asheville was trailing 28-24 with 3:15 left in the first half before the Wildcats forced the Bulldogs into three late turnovers they used during the run that ended with a Ryan Arcidiacono 3-pointer at the buzzer that gave Villanova 40-26 halftime lead.
The Bulldogs made 10 turnovers in the first half which Villanova turned into 21 points.
"Villanova cranked it up in the last three minutes," said Sutton. "They started pressuring us and got some turnovers, which led to easy 3s by (Arcidiacono) in the final minutes. That led to momentum going in at halftime. They came out quick to hustle in the second half and that kind of threw us off."
In the second half, Asheville was within 15 with 15 minutes left before the Wildcats' shooting allowed the Big East regular-season champs to pull away.
Villanova shot 72 percent (18-of-25) from the field in the second stanza and went 6-of-11 from downtown to race into the second round of the tournament for the third straight year.
Asheville was even on the boards with Villanova at 32-32. The Bulldogs had 12 offensive rebounds, including 10 in the second half. McDevitt's club struggled from the field in the second half as the Dogs shot 31 percent (11-of-36) from the field and 20 percent (2-of-10) from beyond the arc.
The Bulldogs' 22 wins is the third highest win total for the program in the Division I era. Asheville earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last six years. The loss to Villanova snapped the Dogs' two-game winning streak against Big East foes.
