| Games 11 & 12: Charleston Southern (1-9, 0-6) at UNC Asheville (5-6, 4-2) |
Charleston Southern and UNC Asheville meet for a pair of matinee affairs from Kimmel Arena between two of the top-three preseason rosters.
Dating back to the 1967-68 season, the series with UNC Asheville is the second most-played for Charleston Southern behind only crosstown rival College of Charleston.
UNC Asheville will play their first home games of the New Year after schedule alterations and a trip to Hampton while Charleston Southern plays their first game away from Buccaneer Field House since a Nov. 27 neutral site battle with Eastern Kentucky and first true road game since the opener Nov. 25 at NC State.
Thursday and Friday's series also marks the first of four trips to the Tar Heel state in Big South play for the Bucs who went 3-1 last season against Campbell, Gardner-Webb, High Point and UNC Asheville away from home.
Last Time Out
- Radford broke open a defensive struggle in the second half to pull away for a 68-48 decision over Charleston Southern Sunday afternoon from Buccaneer Field House.
- Dravon Mangum and Fah'Mir Ali paced Radford with 16 and 12 points each while Charleston Southern senior guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr. had 18 in the series finale.
- Defenses dictated play in the opening 20 minutes as Radford held a 24-20 lead at the intermission with neither team shooting above 38%, but a second-half 15-2 run broke the game open to a 40-22 Highlander advantage at the 14:53 mark.
- Fleming scored 11 of his game-high 18 points in the second half but the Highlanders had an answer for any Charleston Southern run.
Scouting the Highlanders
- Despite not getting a minute of action from Preseason Big South First Team member De'Von Baker, UNC Asheville sits at 4-2 with a pair of splits in their last two conference series at Longwood and Hampton.
- Tajion Jones and LJ Thorpe pace the Bulldog attack scoring over 17 and 12 points a night while Trent Stephney, Jamon Battle, Evan Clayborne and Coty Jude all contribute 8-plus points.
- UNC Asheville sits second in the conference in scoring behind only Winthrop thanks to their 40-minute full-court press attack that leads to 13.3 points off turnovers behind 7.2 steals per contest while shooting .466 from the floor.
- In conference play, the Bulldogs post nearly 77 points a night scoring 80-plus in four of their six contests and 70-plus in five.
Series History
- UNC Asheville has owned the series on their home floor winning 30 of the 43 matchups including seven of 10 since Kimmel Arena was opened prior to the 2011-12 season.
- Charleston Southern and UNC Asheville have met 86 times in basketball dating back to 1968 and are two of the five current original Big South members (Campbell, Radford and Winthrop).
- The teams have split the last four meetings with CSU sweeping in 2018-19 then UNC Asheville sweeping last season.
- Home teams have dominated the series with Charleston Southern owning a 21-17 margin at Buccaneer Field House and UNC Asheville holding a 30-12 advantage at home.
A Series Win Would…
- Give the Bucs a pair of road wins
- Be the second sweep of the Bulldogs over the last three seasons
- Be the fourth and fifth wins at UNC Asheville since Kimmel Arena opened (2011-12 season)
- Give the Bucs 37 wins in series history, the most versus any opponent on the 2020-21 schedule
