University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Friday, November 10
Kingston, RI
7:50 PM
UNC Asheville
0-1
60
at
84
Rhode Island
1-0
1
2
F
UNC Asheville
24
36
60
Rhode Island
40
44
84
Bulldogs Fall in Season Opener at Rhode Island
11.10.2017 | Men's Basketball
KINGSTON, R.I. – Four Bulldogs finished in double figures in UNC Asheville's season-opening 84-60 loss to Rhode Island at the Ryan Center on Friday, Nov. 10.
Rhode Island scored the first four points of the game, but UNC Asheville's first bucket of the year came on a Drew Rackley putback. Rhode Island would hold a slight 8-5 advantage at the first media timeout with MaCio Teague knocking down a trey for the Bulldogs before the first official break of the contest with 15:33 left in the first half.
The Rams would own a 17-8 lead with 11:33 to play in the opening half of action.
Rhode Island would go up by as many as 13 over the next few minutes, but with just over eight minutes left in the first half after a three-point play by Ahmad Thomas the Bulldogs were down just seven at 23-16.
The Rams over the next almost three minutes would extend their lead back to 13 again at 31-18 with 5:03 left in the first stanza.
UNC Asheville would respond to the Ram run with a 6-2 spurt of its own to trail Rhode Island 33-24 at the final media timeout of the first half.
The Rams would close the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 40-24 lead into the halftime break.
UNC Asheville finished the first half shooting 33.3 percent (7-of-21), while Rhode Island shot 50 percent (13-of-26).
The Bulldogs opened the second half by scoring 12 of the first 20 points in the half to trail the Rams 48-36 with just over 15 minutes to play in the contest.
Rhode Island would then score the next eight in the game to lead 56-36 with just over 12 and a half minutes remaining.
Rhode Island would lead 71-46 with just over seven minutes to play in the game. The Rams would eventually outscore the Bulldogs, 44-36, in the second half to pick up the 24-point win.
Vannatta led the four Bulldogs in double figures with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He also had four rebounds and one assist.
Teague and Rackley both finished with 12 points in the contest. Teague also had five assists, four steals and two rebounds. Rackley had five rebounds, two steals and one assist.
Thomas was the final Bulldog in double figures with 11. He also had five rebounds and two assists.
Stanford Robinson was the leading scorer for Rhode Island with 18 points.
UNC Asheville finished the game shooting 42.9 percent (18-of-42) from the field. Rhode Island shot 54.1 percent (33-of-61) from the field as a team. The Bulldogs shot 40 percent (6-of-15) from beyond the arc.
BULLDOG BITES
Perfect
MaCio Teague (88.6 percent last year) picked up where he left off last year from the free throw line against Rhode Island by going a perfect 6-of-6.
Firsts
UNC Asheville senior forward Alec Wnuk made his first career start in his 64th appearance as a Bulldog at Rhode Island. Wnuk has been a significant contributor for the three years prior despite never making a start until this season. He played 19.4 minutes per game last season. Sophomore guard Drew Rackley also made his first career start at Rhode Island. Rackley played in 22 games last year as a freshman for the Bulldogs. In addition, freshman Jalen Seegars made his first appearance as a Bulldog against Rhode Island. He finished his three minutes played with one rebound.
Quotable
"I didn't think that we did a very good job tonight of handling Rhode Island's physicality. Rhode Island is aggressive at every position on every possession. They are aggressive on the catch, they are aggressive on your drives, they are aggressive and physical when you are trying to score at the rim and that caused us to have too many turnovers tonight. You are just not going to beat a top-25 caliber team having as many turnovers as we did tonight. That was the difference in the game. I thought there were some bright spots. I thought we were good in multiple different defenses tonight, but we just gave them too many advantage breaks because of our turnovers and that was the difference" - Head Coach Nick McDevitt
Up Next
UNC Asheville will next open its home schedule by playing host to Lees-McRae at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13.
HOME SWEET HOME
UNC Asheville ended the 2016-17 season in the midst of a nine-game home winning streak. The Bulldogs closed out the regular season 13-1 on the year at home. UNC Asheville after the win over Liberty in the regular season finale last year is now 68-16 all-time at Kimmel Arena, including 48-10 in Big South Conference contests.
Rhode Island scored the first four points of the game, but UNC Asheville's first bucket of the year came on a Drew Rackley putback. Rhode Island would hold a slight 8-5 advantage at the first media timeout with MaCio Teague knocking down a trey for the Bulldogs before the first official break of the contest with 15:33 left in the first half.
The Rams would own a 17-8 lead with 11:33 to play in the opening half of action.
Rhode Island would go up by as many as 13 over the next few minutes, but with just over eight minutes left in the first half after a three-point play by Ahmad Thomas the Bulldogs were down just seven at 23-16.
The Rams over the next almost three minutes would extend their lead back to 13 again at 31-18 with 5:03 left in the first stanza.
UNC Asheville would respond to the Ram run with a 6-2 spurt of its own to trail Rhode Island 33-24 at the final media timeout of the first half.
The Rams would close the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 40-24 lead into the halftime break.
UNC Asheville finished the first half shooting 33.3 percent (7-of-21), while Rhode Island shot 50 percent (13-of-26).
The Bulldogs opened the second half by scoring 12 of the first 20 points in the half to trail the Rams 48-36 with just over 15 minutes to play in the contest.
Rhode Island would then score the next eight in the game to lead 56-36 with just over 12 and a half minutes remaining.
Rhode Island would lead 71-46 with just over seven minutes to play in the game. The Rams would eventually outscore the Bulldogs, 44-36, in the second half to pick up the 24-point win.
Vannatta led the four Bulldogs in double figures with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He also had four rebounds and one assist.
Teague and Rackley both finished with 12 points in the contest. Teague also had five assists, four steals and two rebounds. Rackley had five rebounds, two steals and one assist.
Thomas was the final Bulldog in double figures with 11. He also had five rebounds and two assists.
Stanford Robinson was the leading scorer for Rhode Island with 18 points.
UNC Asheville finished the game shooting 42.9 percent (18-of-42) from the field. Rhode Island shot 54.1 percent (33-of-61) from the field as a team. The Bulldogs shot 40 percent (6-of-15) from beyond the arc.
BULLDOG BITES
Perfect
MaCio Teague (88.6 percent last year) picked up where he left off last year from the free throw line against Rhode Island by going a perfect 6-of-6.
Firsts
UNC Asheville senior forward Alec Wnuk made his first career start in his 64th appearance as a Bulldog at Rhode Island. Wnuk has been a significant contributor for the three years prior despite never making a start until this season. He played 19.4 minutes per game last season. Sophomore guard Drew Rackley also made his first career start at Rhode Island. Rackley played in 22 games last year as a freshman for the Bulldogs. In addition, freshman Jalen Seegars made his first appearance as a Bulldog against Rhode Island. He finished his three minutes played with one rebound.
Quotable
"I didn't think that we did a very good job tonight of handling Rhode Island's physicality. Rhode Island is aggressive at every position on every possession. They are aggressive on the catch, they are aggressive on your drives, they are aggressive and physical when you are trying to score at the rim and that caused us to have too many turnovers tonight. You are just not going to beat a top-25 caliber team having as many turnovers as we did tonight. That was the difference in the game. I thought there were some bright spots. I thought we were good in multiple different defenses tonight, but we just gave them too many advantage breaks because of our turnovers and that was the difference" - Head Coach Nick McDevitt
Up Next
UNC Asheville will next open its home schedule by playing host to Lees-McRae at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13.
HOME SWEET HOME
UNC Asheville ended the 2016-17 season in the midst of a nine-game home winning streak. The Bulldogs closed out the regular season 13-1 on the year at home. UNC Asheville after the win over Liberty in the regular season finale last year is now 68-16 all-time at Kimmel Arena, including 48-10 in Big South Conference contests.
Team Stats
AVL
URI
FG%
.429
.541
3FG%
.400
.214
FT%
.563
.750
RB
31
32
TO
27
15
STL
7
13
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
2
3FGM
2
FTM
6
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
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/ Men's Basketball
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