Coastal Hosts Asheville Monday in Big South Matchup
12/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
CONWAY - The Coastal Carolina women's basketball team will look to earn its first Big South win of the season on Monday when the Chanticleers host UNC Asheville for a 7 p.m. game at The HTC Center.
Asheville vs. Coastal | Monday, Dec. 14 | 7 p.m.
Series: Coastal leads 32-31
Arena: The HTC Center
Video: Big South Network
Live Stats:
Twitter: @GoCCUSports
Coastal vs. Asheville
Monday's game marks the 64th all-time meeting between the Chanticleers and Bulldogs. Coastal owns a 32-31 advantage in the series, but lost all three of its games against Asheville last season. UNCA won 68-61 in Asheville before topping the Chants 87-53 in the regular season finale in Conway. The two sides met again just three days later as UNCA knocked Coastal out of the Big South tournament with a 68-54 win in the first round.
Scouting Asheville
After falling in its season opener at East Tennessee State, Asheville has won its last seven straight games to sit in second place in the Big South.
The Bulldogs lead the Big South in scoring, averaging 79.6 ppg, while Asheville's defense ranks second in the league limiting its opponents to 55.5 ppg. Asheville is also the league's best shooting team, averaging 43.3 percent from the floor while knocking down 36.9 percent of its shots from beyond the arc.
Tianna Knuckles (15.9 ppg) and Chatori Major (10.0 ppg) are averaging double figures for Asheville, while five other Bulldogs are scoring at least seven points a night. KJ Weaver leads Asheville on the boards brining in 6.6 rpg.
Long Shots
Monday's game features two of the league's top 3-point shooters in Nicole Isaacs and Tianna Knuckles.
Isaacs, Coastal's second-leading scorer averaging 12.3 ppg, is second in the Big South in both 3-point field goal percentage (.455) and 3-point field goals made (2.5 per game). The redshirt senior has been Coastal's leading scorer in each of its last two games with 32 points against Campbell and 18 against Warren Wilson. She is also shooting .632 from 3-point range during that stretch.
Knuckles is third in the Big South in 3-point field goal percentage (.452) and first in 3-point field goals made (3.5 per game). She led Asheville in scoring in its latest win at UNC Greensboro, getting all 15 of her points off of 3-pointers and finishing 5-7 from beyond the arc.
Up Next
The Chants head to the Myrtle Beach Convention Center on Dec. 18 to take on Wake Forest as part of the CresCom Bank Carolina's Challenge. Opening tip is set for 7:30 p.m.
It will be the fifth all-time meeting between the Chants and Demon Deacons, and first since 2000-01. Coastal is 1-4 against Wake Forest, picking up a 72-60 win at home in 1999-2000. It stood as Coastal's only win against an ACC opponent until the Chants topped Clemson earlier this season.
