Kimmel Arena – Asheville, N.C.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – February was a very kind month to Charleston Southern with the Bucs claiming a 5-2 record in their seven contests with three of those wins coming wire-to-wire.
The Bucs have a chance to win their sixth contest over the past eight tries and collect a season sweep over the UNC Asheville Bulldogs. A win would be their second sweep of the year after downing USC Upstate in both contests.
CSU's defense has been lockdown as of late holding Gardner-Webb to just .288 from the floor in a win Tuesday night and holding five of their past seven opponents below the 60-point mark.
Shelby Wilbanks and Breannah Bretches have turned it up a notch since conference play began averaging above 12.0 points per contest. Wilbanks' 22-point, 11-rebound effort pushed her to a team-best 12.7 points in Big South play and she's the fourth Buccaneer averaging 10-plus points across the full season.
Paced by a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double effort from Shelby Wilbanks, the Charleston Southern women's basketball team defeated Gardner-Webb 66-58 Tuesday from the Buc Dome in Big South action.
Wilbanks' second career double-double headlined a CSU (10-16, 7-8 Big South) offense that saw 14 from Breannah Bretches and near-double figure nights from Ahlea Myers (nine points) and Rachel Burns (eight points) while the defense held the Runnin' Bulldogs (14-14, 8-8 Big South) to just .288 from the floor.
The Buccaneer defense showed up early holding Gardner-Webb to just 19 first-half points, including seven in the first 10 minutes, while pulling down 43 rebounds and holding the Runnin' Bulldogs to just .227 from beyond the arc.
Gardner-Webb had a late rally scoring 26 in the final quarter, but the Bucs posted 23 points of their own to prevail and collect their fifth Big South win of the month.
UNC Asheville has only lost two games at home this season - a three-point loss to Hampton and one-point heartbreaker versus Radford Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs are led offensively by Jessica Wall's 10.7 points per game while Nadira Evans adds 9.1.
In their first matchup, Evans and Wall scored 41 combined points accounting for nearly 70% of the Bulldogs' points in a 70-59 CSU win. Evans had a game-high 21 in the loss while Wall added 20.
CSU clamped down defensively allowing only four assists on 18 made field goals while stealing eight passes and forcing 19 Bulldog turnovers.
Brooke Jordan-Brown leads the Bulldogs with 6.4 rebounds per game as the Bulldogs sport a +5.2 margin - tops in the Big South.
Give the Bucs 31 all-time wins over UNC Asheville, tying for the most versus a single program in CSU history.
Give the Bucs a season sweep over the Bulldogs.
Be their sixth win over the past eight games.
Bring the Bucs back to .500 on the season in conference play and matchups with Winthrop and Longwood to follow.
Be the third 1-0 start to a month this season for CSU after a 1-0 start in November and 3-0 run in February.