Celebrating 90 Years - Looking Back on a Magical Win for UNC Asheville Women's Basketball

The UNC Asheville women's basketball team hosts Liberty Tuesday night (Jan. 16) at 7 p.m. in a key Big South Conference regular-season contest. Let's look back at a great Bulldog-LU game from two years ago.

A magical season would end up with a magical championship game.

The UNC Asheville women's basketball team was one of college basketball best stories in the 2015-16 season. Picked to finish in eighth place in the Big South preseason poll and coming off a 9-22 campaign, the Bulldogs enjoyed the best season the program had experienced in more than 30 years. Asheville won its first ever Big South regular-season title with a 14-4 record and finished the regular season with a 23-6 overall record.

And Kimmel Arena would host the Big South Tournament. The tournament had originally been slated to be held at Coastal Carolina but when the Chanticleer program announced it was moving to the Sun Belt Conference, the league took the tournament away from them. The Big South sent the men's tournament to Campbell and Asheville was awarded the women's tournament.

The Bulldogs picked up numerous individual honors after the regular-season. Junior guard Chatori Major was named Big South Player of the Year, while head coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick was a near unanimous choice for Coach of the Year.

Asheville's quest for a tournament title began with a dominating 70-42 victory over Campbell. The Camels had upset the Bulldogs two weeks earlier to spoil Senior Day but revenge was Asheville's as a loud and supportive crowd saw the home team race to an early 13-2 lead and cruise to the semifinals for the first time in nine years.

In the semifinals, the Bulldogs had a tough battle with a determined Presbyterian College. The Blue Hose coached by Asheville native Ronny Fisher made nothing easy for the Blue & White. But 22 points from Major had been the difference in a 65-55 victory.

In the other bracket, conference kingpin Liberty strolled to wins over Charleston Southern and Radford to reach the title game for the 17^th time in the last 19 years. The Flame program hadn't just dominated the Big South – they had owned it. They had won 15 of the last 19 tournament championships, twice beating the Bulldogs in title games. LU had won the 2015 title and was anxious to go back to the NCAA Tournament again.

Asheville and Liberty had split regular-season contests. The Flames had defeated the Bulldogs, 71-53 early in the year in Lynchburg before Asheville had won an exciting 56-51 contest at Kimmel Arena a month earlier.

Kirkpatrick fully expected a tough game from Liberty.

"We knew it would be an intense battle. There would be no element of surprise from each team because we knew each other so well," explained Kirkpatrick. "I like the way we had played in the previous two games. Our team didn't seem to be feeling the pressure and Paige Love was doing a great job leading the charge for us."

Love remembered how well prepared the Bulldogs were for the title game.

"We had developed a pretty good rivalry with Liberty over the past few years and were very excited to play them for the championship," stated Love. "Our coaching staff had done a great job all year long preparing us for each and every game. We were prepared for Liberty and ready to go."

The Bulldogs got off to a good start and led 12-7 with three minutes to go in the first quarter but suddenly the Flames offense came alive. LU's huge front-line began to dominate on offense and defense as the visitors scored the final 11 points of the quarter to lead 18-12.

The run continued in the second quarter with Asheville ice cold from the field, and Liberty scoring the next five points to race to a 23-12 lead.

But led by a crowd of close to 2,000 fans, the Bulldogs would find resolve as they began to stop LU's inside game and treys from Major and Knuckles fueled an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 23-20. Liberty would settle for a 30-23 halftime lead.

The third quarter would see Asheville inch closer. Liberty's defense was tough on the Bulldogs perimeter offense, but this Bulldog team had a lot of weapons. Love would sink a long trey, followed by freshman Jessica Wall to close the LU lead to 39-38 at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was truly a classic with seven lead changes and six ties. Liberty looked like it might be forging ahead as it led 51-48 with three minutes left. But Love answered with a long trey from the top of the key with the shot clock winding down to knot the game at 51-51.

Both defenses dug in and wouldn't allow any points for two minutes before Major was fouled on a drive to the hoop with 1:02 left. She made them both and the championship was a minute away for Asheville at 53-51. But Liberty would not go down without a fight and tied the game on an Ashley Rininger lay-up with 48 seconds left.

After a Bulldog miss, the Flames would hold for the last shot and the win. But Asheville was prepared for the last-second LU play and forced a tough shot and Love came down with the rebound at the five-second mark. Now the Bulldogs could win at the buzzer, but Major's shot was short and overtime was needed.

Asheville led for most of the first overtime period. Tianna Knuckles put the Bulldogs in front at the 38-second mark with a jumper to make it 60-58. But again Liberty responded as Catherine Kearny rebounded a Flame miss and tied the game at 60-60. Asheville had a chance to win at the buzzer again but Knuckles jumper was short and now a second overtime.

Both teams were exhausted as this point and it showed on offense. Love had given the Bulldogs a 62-60 lead off the opening tap and then no one had scored for more than four minutes. Kearny would strike again as she rebounded a missed three-pointer to once again knot the game at 62-62.

Asheville called a timeout and set up a hopeful winning play.

"We wanted Bre (Bre Fizgerald) to set a down screen and allow Chatori to penetrate and for her get a good shot at the basket," said Kirkpatrick. "It didn't quite work out that way but it did work out for us."

As Major drove to the basket, three Liberty players converged on her; leaving Fitzgerald open. Major, almost on her knees, managed to get the ball to Fitzgerald. The sophomore center hit the biggest lay-up in more than 30 years for the Bulldogs as they now led 64-62 with eight seconds left.

But there was still time for Liberty to tie or win. The Flames came out of a timeout and got the ball to Rininger. With KJ Weaver playing tight defense, Riniger's shot misfired and Weaver came down with rebound with two seconds remaining.

Weaver would miss both free throws, but Liberty would not have time to get a final shot off. The Bulldogs had prevailed 64-62 in double overtime. Asheville was going to the NCAA Tournament.

"We were doing a lot of situation substitution in the final few minutes, offense for defense. We had Bre for offense and KJ for defense. Bre hit a huge shot and KJ made a big defensive play," commented Kirkpatrick.

"It was a fantastic game as both teams battled so hard for 50 minutes. In the end, we probably had just a little bit more in the tank then Liberty had. And the fact that we were at home helped a great deal," added Kirkpatrick. "I remember it was a great crowd that gave us energy whenever we needed it and it got us over the hump in the second overtime."

Love gave credit to the Bulldog coaching staff for once again having them prepared late in the game.

"Coach Mock would put us in special situations in practice, so we were prepared for what Liberty was going to do at the end of regulation and at the end of the game," stated Love. "We just knew we had to execute what we had practiced, and we'd be all right."

When the final horn sounded, and the Bulldogs had won, Kirkpatrick had several things running in her mind.

"It was a little surreal to see the fans on the floor and our team celebrating," she said. "I tried to stay in the moment but then it hit me how we had come from 2-28 my first year to a championship this season. It was like a dream come true. It was truly a magical moment."

A magical season had ended with a truly magical game. The first fans to reach the floor to celebrate with the women's team were the men's basketball team who had won the Big South championship one week earlier. For just the third time in Big South history, the men's and women's basketball championship teams were coming from the same school.

The Bulldogs would fall in the NCAA Tournament to Kentucky one week later but that did little to diminish what Asheville had accomplished. A 26-7 season was the best record by a Bulldog team in more than 30 years.

Asheville's last win in an incredible season had truly been magical.

**In celebration of UNC Asheville's 90th anniversary, Hall of Famer Mike Gore will look back on important moments in athletics department history over the course of the 2017-18 athletic year**

University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics

Celebrating 90 Years - Looking Back on a Magical Win for UNC Asheville Women's Basketball

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Tianna Knuckles

Chatori Major

Jessica Wall

KJ Weaver

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