University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
South Carolina
Bulldog Women Set to Play South Carolina in NCAA Tournament
03.16.2017 | Women's Basketball
Asheville-South Carolina Game Notes (PDF)
2017 WBB Postseason Guide
Thursday Press Conference (Video/YouTube)
Thursday Photo Gallery (Facebook)
Different Feel for Bulldogs Entering This Year's NCAA Tournament (story)
THE MATCHUP
Teams: 16-Seed UNC Asheville (19-14, 9-9 Big South Conference)
1-Seed (#3-Nationally) South Carolina (27-4, 14-2 SEC)
Location:Â Columbia, S.C. / Colonial Life Arena
When:Â Friday, March 17, 2017 / 5 p.m.
Video:Â ESPN2
Talent:Â Dave Pasch (PxP), LaChina Robinson (Analyst)
Radio:Â W262CO 100.3 FM
Talent:Â Mike Gore
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
BULLDOG BITES
UNC ASHEVILLE IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: UNC Asheville women's basketball is making its third overall appearance in the Big Dance and second in as many years. The 2006-07 team was the first Bulldog squad to make it to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament after claiming the Big South Tournament. All three first round opponents the Bulldogs will have faced after Friday's game will have been SEC foes. The Bulldogs played LSU in 2007, Kentucky in 2016 and are slated to play South Carolina this year.
BACK-TO-BACK: Seventh-seeded UNC Asheville became the first Big South Conference women's basketball team to win four games in four days and claim the Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship with a 49-48 win over top-seeded Radford at the Vines Center. UNC Asheville (19-14) also became the first seventh seed to win the Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship with their impressive run. The Bulldogs' third league title overall and second straight advances Asheville to the NCAA Tournament. They join Radford and Liberty as the only three Big South Conference women's basketball programs to make consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament.
ELITE COMPANY: The UNC Asheville women's basketball team is one of just 11 teams in the 2017 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament that earned APR awards last season. Those teams include the Bulldogs, Albany, Auburn, Creighton, DePaul, Elon, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Stanford and Texas.
FAMILIAR FACE: Friday's analyst for the ESPN2 broadcast will be LaChina Robinson. Robinson and UNC Asheville head women's basketball coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick played three seasons together at Wake Forest (1998-2001).
THE SERIES WITH SOUTH CAROLINA: The Bulldogs and Gamecocks have met on the hardwood just three times in program history with SC having claimed all three previous contests. All three previous meetings were in Columbia. The first meeting between the two came during the 1985-86 season with the Gamecocks winning 111-36. The two met again during the 1998-99 season with SC winning 80-40. The most recent matchup saw South Carolina win 80-52 during the 2007-08 season.
SCOUTING THE GAMECOCKS: South Carolina will be playing in its 14 NCAA Tournament and sixth under head coach Dawn Staley. It will also mark the sixth straight year the Gamecocks will play in the Big Dance, the longest streak in program history. The Gamecocks have advanced to the Sweet 16 seven times, the Elite Eight twice and the Final Four once. This season, SC went 27-4 and 14-2 in SEC play, including winning the SEC Tournament with a 59-49 victory over Mississippi State. The Gamecocks enter Friday's game on a five game winning streak despite having played the fourth-toughest schedule in the nation. South Carolina is 13-1 this season at home. The lone blemish on the record came in the form of a 76-74 loss to Tennessee on Jan. 30. As a team, South Carolina averages 76.2 points per contest and shoots 47 percent from the field. When the Gamecocks and Bulldogs face off on Friday, South Carolina will be without second-leading scorer Alaina Coates. The senior center, who is projected to go high in this year's WNBA draft, is still recovering from an ankle injury. On the season, Coates was averaging a double-double with 12.9 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. A'ja Wilson leads the Gamecocks with 17.6 points per game and is a 58.7 percent shooter from the field. Behind Coates, Wilson is the Gamecocks' leading rebounder. Kaela Davis is South Carolina's leading three-point shooter, averaging 1.6 per contest and shooting 34.7 percent for the year.
A POSITIVE RECORD: For the seventh time in program history, the UNC Asheville Bulldogs will finish with a positive record. UNC Asheville's win over Longwood in the first round of the Big South Championships on Thursday, March 9, guaranteed the Bulldogs a winning record in the 2016-17 season. The first winning record came during the 1996-97 season (14-13). The Bulldogs then rattled off four in a row from 2003-2007 (19-9, 18-12, 15-13, 21-12). Last season, head coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick guided the Bulldogs to a 26-7 record.
PROGRAM-BEST: The win over Radford on Sunday, March 12, was UNC Asheville's seventh straight league tournament win, which is the best in program history.
BULLDOGS IN BIG SOUTH TOURNAMENT UNDER COACH MOCK: The Bulldogs are now 9-3 in the Big South Tournament under head coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, who is now just the fifth Big South coach with multiple tournament titles.
BIG SOUTH ALL-TOURNAMENT SELECTIONS: UNC Asheville took three spots on the 2017 Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship All-Tournament Team with sophomore guard Sonora Dengokl, junior center Bronaza Fitzgerald and senior guard Chatori Major all earning a spot on the team. Dengokl was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
THREE FOR THREE: In UNC Asheville's 56-55 win over Presbyterian College in the semifinal round of the Big South Championships, senior guard Chatori Major knocked down three three-pointers, giving her 74 for the season at the time. That mark eclipsed the school record for most three-pointers made in a single season set last season by teammate Tianna Knuckles. Last season, Knuckles converted 73 treys. It was a mark that had stood for 25 years prior to Knuckles' junior year. Entering Friday's game at South Carolina, Major now has 76 three-pointers on the year.
1,000 CAREER POINTS: Chatori Major became the 106th Big South Conference player and 16th UNC Asheville women's basketball player to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in the Bulldogs' win over Winthrop on Feb. 21. The senior guard from Camp Lejeune, N.C., needed just five entering the game against Winthrop to hit the mark, and she accomplished that less than five minutes in. Major enters Friday's game with 1,106 career points, 12th-most by a Bulldog all-time and eighth-most in the NCAA Division I era.
CORRALLING THEM IN: Senior center KJ Weaver currently has 259 rebounds on the year, a mark that is currently ninth all-time for rebounds in a single season and fourth in the Bulldogs' NCAA Division I era. For her career, Weaver has 740 rebounds, the sixth-most in program history and fourth-most in the Division I era.
GET ON BOARD: KJ Weaver became the 108th player in Big South Conference women's basketball history to eclipse the 500 rebound plateau in the Bulldogs' win over Western Carolina on Nov. 18. She has since joined two more elite groups, becoming the 74th player in Big South history to eclipse the 600 rebound mark and the 50th player in league history to eclipse the 700 rebound mark. She has 740 rebounds for her career.
BLOCK PARTY: KJ Weaver enters the NCAA Tournament with 157 career blocks. That mark has her currently in the top-five in program history. This season, she has recorded multiple blocks in a game 17 times, including five in a row from Saturday, Feb. 4, through Saturday, Feb. 18. She had a season-high five blocked shots on Friday, Nov. 25 against Tennessee Tech. Weaver enters the tournament having recorded two blocks in each of the last two games.
KNUCKLES IN THE HISTORY BOOKS: Tianna Knuckles will graduate from UNC Asheville with her name firmly in the record books, much like her parents did at High Point University. Knuckles ended her playing time 10th all-time in scoring and sixth in the NCAA Division I era with 1,129 career points. The 105th Big South women's basketball player to surpass 1,000 points, Knuckles passed the 1,000-point mark in the Bulldog win over Western Carolina on Friday, Nov. 18, at Kimmel Arena. Knuckles also set the career record for most three-pointers made in a career as she converted 175 treys. Last season, Knuckles converted 73 treys to set the program record for three-pointers made in a single season, a mark that was broken last weekend by teammate Chatori Major. It was a mark that had stood for 25 years prior to Knuckles' junior year.
ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTIONS: UNC Asheville senior women's basketball players Chatori Major and KJ Weaver were honored by the Big South Conference Tuesday afternoon as both earned all-conference honors. Major earned her second first-team plaudits in as many years and was named to the All-Academic Team. Weaver was named an honorable mention selection. Major becomes just the fourth UNC Asheville women's basketball player to earn multiple All-Big South first team honors. She joins Jessica Guarneri (2000-01, 2001-02), Vicki Giffin (1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97) and Wendy Beecher (1986-87, 1987-88) in the honor.
SEEING DOUBLE: When KJ Weaver and Bronaza Fitzgerald each recorded a double-double in the Bulldogs' 68-53 win over Winthrop on Tuesday, Jan. 10, it was the first time the feat had been accomplished by two UNC Asheville women's basketball players since the 2010-11 season. That year, Lindsay Montgomery scored 20 points and brought down 10 boards while Kelli Riles chipped in 11 points and added 10 rebounds in a loss to Charleston Southern on Feb. 9, 2011. In fact, the duo of Montgomery and Riles accomplished the feat four times that season.
QUOTABLES
"First of all, we are just super excited to be here. Thank you to the NCAA and to the University of South Carolina for making this a first class experience so far. Obviously last weekend was a very special moment for these young ladies beside me, their teammates, and UNC Asheville. Winning four games in four days really was the epitome of how our entire season has gone. Overcoming some adversity early in the season and then really playing our best brand of basketball in late February and into March, which was one of our goals when we were going through some of that adversity in December and January, was to pick ourselves back up and be able to be playing well going into the conference tournament. We are obviously excited to be here, putting together a game plan for a very, very good South Carolina team. But this is a great opportunity for these young ladies and we are looking forward to it." – Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick
On how last year's experience at the NCAA Tournament will help this time around
"The opponent (this year) is not easier, that's a given. With anything in life, having that experience is going to give you confidence. We are a little bit more comfortable with it, and we know what to expect. Everything is not so overwhelming. With the pass of play – at Kentucky we tried to simulate that going into that week. But in the first quarter Kentucky set a tone, and I'm sure that's what South Carolina will do. That took us off guard. It's easier to try and prepare for something versus going through it. That experience is absolutely helpful along with having four seniors on the team – albeit two are out with injuries. Having 12 returners that have been to the NCAA Tournament is so helpful. It's helpful to me as a head coach. We have to have our goals, and we need to celebrate those goals no matter what the circumstances are in the game. We need to celebrate the small victories in the grand scheme of things – if not we can lose focus, and we are not going to be able to put our best brand of basketball out there." – Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick
