University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
16-14,8-8Big South
Charleston Southern
6-24,1-15Big South
Men’s basketball stunned at the buzzer, fall 79-78 in first round of Big South Championship
03.02.2022 | Men's Basketball
Charleston Southern advances to face USC Upstate Friday
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville Men's Basketball faced Charleston Southern in the First Round of the 2022 Hercules Tires Big South Championship at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday afternoon, dropping a heartbreaker at the buzzer 79-78.
While Asheville led the majority of the game, Drew Pember would be forced to sit with foul trouble early in the second. As the teams traded blows, Pember checked back in, immediately throwing down a dunk and draining a 3-pointer as Asheville re-gained the momentum. At the 8-minute mark, however, Pember challenged a dunk at the rim and picked up his fourth, being whistled for a technical that would ultimately be his fifth of the game.
Charleston Southern would eventually take its first lead with 1:10 to play, and after Silas Mason put the Bulldogs back in front by one with two free throws, the Bucs' Taje Kelly tipped in a miss as time expired to give Charleston Southern the win.
"We've been in that situation a good amount this year and unfortunately it just hasn't went our way as much as we wanted it to," Head Coach Mike Morrell said of the last-second ending. "When Drew went out of the game with eight minutes to go, the game really changed after that. He was plus 13, not even 16 minutes today. Just really disappointed for our players because we've got five guys who have been here with me for four years. I'm proud of them, proud of their fight. Especially those guys who tried to bring it home in the last few minutes."
The Game at a Glance
- Pember limited to 16 minutes, scores 16 points, grabs 3 rebounds, 1 block
- Charleston Southern's Kelly scores 24 points, tips in game-winner as time expires
- Bulldogs shoot 46.3% from the floor, 47.6% from 3-point range, commit just nine turnovers
- LJ Thorpe leads Asheville with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists
- Buccaneers shoot 52.7% from the floor, score 36 points in the paint
- Mason totals 10 and 5 off the bench, 6-for-9 from the free throw line
- Thorpe, Tajion Jones, Coty Jude, Luke Lawson, Deacon Heath cap off Bulldog careers (45 wins, part of one of biggest turnarounds in college basketball in 2019-20)
Asheville finishes the 2021-22 season with a 16-14 overall record while Charleston Southern advances to play USC Upstate Friday in the Quarterfinal Round.
More from Morrell
On the Tournament being held in Charlotte:
"Obviously a really disappointing ending to what we hope was going to be a longer stay here in Charlotte. The conference has done an unbelievable job with this, it looks great here so kudos to the Big South for that."
On His Seniors:
"I didn't get into coaching like most people do, I got into coaching because I didn't know what else to do. What you find out when you get into coaching, it's just about relationships. I'm disappointed in our season because it had the chance to be so much better, but it doesn't take away from what these guys have done the last four years. Thankfully for me, the guy to my left (LJ Thorpe) was here. Because of the way our season ended last year, our last regular-season game was January 29th, and it's one of the reasons this one is really disappointing, but those guys mean everything. I think UNC Asheville will look back years down the road and be really grateful for what those guys did."
On Silas Mason's Play:
"I thought Silas Mason going to the free-throw line, not being in those situations a ton until the last couple of games, just enormous free throws from him…I told somebody the other day, within a season, Silas Mason's made the most growth of any player I've ever coached within the course of the season."
Reflecting on the season:
"Just a lot of close games. If you look back over the nine losses we had in league play, two or three in overtime, a couple in the last five seconds where you just needed a stop, that's really the theme. We've won our fair share of close ones. Winning's hard but I tell these guys all the time the other team wants to win too. Wanting to win is not enough you have to go out, especially in winning time which we classify as the last six minutes of the game, you have to take the win. We didn't do that today. Part of that is maybe our response when things didn't go our way but we should have taken the game. Give Charleston Southern a lot of credit."
