University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Mike Gore's "40-for-40": A Look at the 2003-04 Women’s Basketball Season
02.05.2026 | General, Women's Basketball
Back in November, Tynesha Lewis' second UNC Asheville team showed everybody that they were a much-improved ball club this season.
The Bulldogs led from start-to-finish as they won at mountain rival Western Carolina, 67-50.
Coach Lewis was delighted with the win and it made for a happy bus ride back to Asheville.
And it brought back memories of a similar win in a similar situation more than 20 years ago.
Betsy Blose became UNC Asheville's women's basketball coach in the spring of 2002. She had her work cut out for her. The previous season had the Bulldogs going 1-28 and right after the season, Asheville's top player decided to transfer along with a few other key players.
And the 2002-03 season wasn't much better, at least on paper, as the Bulldogs went 3-25 and winless in Big South Conference play. But we all could tell that Asheville was improved. They were in most of their conference games but in the end the other team would find a way to win.
Blose and her staff brought in a great recruiting class for the 2003-04 season. Asheville was 3-2 in the early part of that year and entered a game at Western Carolina with a three-game winning streak.
But the Bulldogs had not won a road game in a while. In fact, Asheville had lost 41 straight road games before it headed to Cullowhee. It had been three years since the Bulldogs traveled home with a win.
And it would be a tough assignment to defeat the Catamounts. Western Carolina enjoyed an outstanding year the previous season and were expected to compete for a Southern Conference championship.
But this game would show that this was a different Bulldog team from the previous seasons. Asheville would lock in defensively, dominate the boards and lead from start-to-finish to record a 51-41 victory over the Catamounts.
The win would propel the Bulldogs program to their best Division I season as they would finish with a 19-9 overall record. Asheville would finish second in the Big South Conference, easily its highest finish ever in league play. The Bulldogs' 19-9 record made them the most improved team in the country. Betsy would become the first Asheville women's basketball coach to be named Big South Coach of the Year.
Betsy stepped down from coaching back in 2012 but she still worked for the Bulldog athletic department in various roles before retiring two years ago. She can be heard now doing color on UNC Asheville's men's and women's basketball games on the Bulldogs' ESPN+ broadcasts.
That game was more than 20 years ago but Coach Blose remembers it fondly.
"We knew we were better that year and had showed signs early on but that win over Western Carolina really sparked us," said Blose. "I knew we hadn't won on the road since I came to Asheville so it was nice to get that out of the way. Western had a good team that year so it was nice to break that streak with a win over an exceptionally good opponent.
However, there was one thing Betsy didn't like.
"It only takes 45 minutes to get from Asheville to Cullowhee," said Blose. "All those long bus rides after we lost seemed to take forever to get home but we were so happy that it seemed like we were home in 10 minutes.
"I almost asked the bus driver and the team to drive around another hour!!! I wanted us to enjoy this road victory," she added.
There would be a lot more road victories for the Bulldogs that season and during Betsy's tenure. She got Asheville to the Big South championship game in 2005 with players who went through a 1-28 campaign before Betsy got there.
And then in 2007, the Bulldogs captured the Big South Conference championship at Justice Center with three tough wins, including a victory over Radford in the title game. They did it without their leading scorer, Ashton Barton, playing.
When the Bulldogs won at WCU earlier this year, they didn't have a 41-game road losing streak like Asheville had in 2003 but it was still a signature win.
"I'm sure Coach Lewis wanted that bus to just take its time coming home from Cullowhee," said Blose recently.
