UNC Asheville Set to Square Off Against Wake Forest

GAME NOTES | at WAKE FOREST

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – UNC Asheville's men's basketball team wraps up its three-game road trip to open the 2019-20 season when it travels to Wake Forest for a 7 p.m., Wednesday, showdown with the Demon Deacons at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Bulldogs (1-1) enter the contest having secured the first nonconference road victory of the Mike Morrell Era, as they took down The Citadel, 91-76, Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs were led by Preseason First-Team All-Big South selection DeVon Baker, who racked up a game-high 25 points for his 10th-career 20-point performance.

The Demon Deacons (1-1, 0-1 ACC) scored a 65-63 victory at home, Sunday, in the waning seconds against Columbia.

This will be the ninth all-time meeting between UNC Asheville and Wake Forest, dating back to 1976, and the first since 2014. The Deacons have won all eight prior matchups, and the narrowest margin of victory in series is 11 points, which occurred in the first and most recent games of the series.

Wednesday's action will be available streaming on ACC Network Extra HERE, and Brian Hall and hall-of-famer Mike Gore will have the radio call on ESPN Asheville on 92.9 FM, 880 AM, 1400 AM or streaming HERE. Fans will also be able to follow along via live stats HERE.

NOTABLY

Redshirt sophomore LJ Thorpe earned Big South Player of the Week recognition for his performances during the season's opening week. He currently leads the conference in field goal percentage (.650), and averaged 17 points, six rebounds and three steals to open the year.
Guards DeVon Baker (25 points) and Tajion Jones (23 points) led the way in scoring for the Bulldogs against The Citadel. They are the first pair of Bulldogs to go over 20 points in a game since…Jones scored 30 and Baker put in 22 against Milligan, December 21, 2018.
The Bulldogs have closed out the halves with impressive runs this season, including an 8-2 run at the end of the first and a 12-2 run at the end of the second half at Tennessee. At The Citadel, the Bulldogs finished the first half on a 32-13 run over the final 8:37.
Four Bulldogs scored in double-digits against The Citadel – DeVon Baker (25), Tajion Jones (23), LJ Thorpe (12) and Jax Levitch (11). They are the first quartet to hit double figures since Baker, Jones, Coty Jude and Luke Lawson did so at Gardner-Webb, Feb. 2, 2019.
The last time the Bulldogs and Demon Deacons met, November 14, 2014, Wake Forest used the free throw line to help keep a pesky Asheville team at bay. The Bulldogs forced the Deacons into 24 turnovers and Andrew Rousey led all scorers in the game with 26 points. The Bulldogs cut the lead to 49-47 with 11:26 remaining in the game, but Wake ultimately prevailed, 80-69, thanks to free throws down the stretch, hitting 32-of-45 in the game.
Sophomore guard DeVon Baker earned recognition as one of the top five players in the Big South entering the 2019-20 season in a vote of league coaches and media members. Among returning players in the conference, Baker ranks second in points per game (16.1) and free throw percentage (.817), third in minutes per game (33.9) and fifth in assists per game (3.0) and steals per game (1.5).
The Bulldogs were one of the youngest teams in the country last season, as eight freshmen combined for 109 starts and 4,764 minutes. This season, 83.6 percent of last year's minutes return, including all eight freshmen returning for their second seasons.

UNC Asheville Set to Square Off Against Wake Forest

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Players Mentioned

DeVon Baker

Tajion Jones

Coty Jude

Luke Lawson

Jax Levitch

LJ Thorpe

University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics