Basketball

The UNC Asheville men's basketball team jump-started their season with a 75-63 win over Belmont-Abbey Friday night.

"We started to play with more structure, but then we got careless by either giving up turnovers, not rebounding or giving them open shots," Head Coach Eddie Biedenbach said. "We just didn't play as good as we can, but I'm happy to be 1-0 against a pretty good Belmont-Abbey team."

Despite trading point for point with the Crusaders (0-1) in the first period, the Bulldogs (1-0) went into halftime with a 40-31 lead. In the second half, the Bulldogs came out firing on all cylinders, building on their lead only to see it disappear due to inconsistencies later in the period, according to Biedenbach.

"Their size was good and they shot the ball well," Biedenbach said. "I thought they were a good basketball team. We should have played better. We should have stretched the lead at certain points, but we didn't. Their pressure and our lack of sound, fundamental basketball play kept us from stretching the lead. But I credit Belmont-Abbey for part of that."

Even though his team's performance wasn't to Biedenbach's liking, he said that it was an improvement over what he first saw in practice before the season started.

"Progressively, the guys have played better and better," Biedenbach said. "We've played a little better in practices, and we've been able to carry it over to the games."

He said he's excited to see how some of the players perform in this year's team. Some players with potential didn't get a chance to play in the game, according to Biedenbach.

"I think we have a lot of players that are going to excel in this group," Biedenbach said. "Some of the guys that didn't get into the game tonight, I think are going to be great. They're just freshmen and sophomores that don't quite have the experience, yet. I like our team. I like our offense and I like our defense. It wasn't good defense tonight, but it was aggressive, there was a lot of hustle and as we become more and more team oriented on defense, I think we can be a good basketball team."

One player who has surprised Biedenbach so early on in the season is junior forward Jason Ridenhour, he said.

"Jason has been a surprise this year," Biedenbach said. "He's very mobile and versatile. But as we progress through the season, our size inside is going to hurt us and we've got to get more of our bigger guys in the line-up to spell him, so that Jason can continue to do what he's doing. Jason is a good player and he showed that tonight."

Ridenhour said his team had a good game, but that their game still isn't quite where they want it to be yet.

"I think we did a good job tonight," Ridenhour said. "We played hard. That team was very scrappy. We need to work a little bit more. We're a little rough around the edges from all the freshmen we have, but we'll work that out."

He said that their inconsistent play could be attributed to nerves and the fact that they're a young team this year.

"We're still learning to work with each other," Ridenhour said. "We've got five freshmen out there who are playing regularly, so we don't know them and they don't know us, so we're still working on that. But I'm confident we'll get it together."

Ridenhour was 6-8 shooting Friday night, finishing with 12 points. According to him, his role doesn't require him to be the team's leading scorer.

"My role this year is not so much scoring," Ridenhour said. "I don't need to drop 20 or so points. I just need to be a vocal leader, get everybody running the same play, the same defense, communicate to the team what's going on and to bring energy to the team. Leadership, I think, is my main role this year."

John Williams, a sophomore forward for the Bulldogs, said the team lacked some intensity.

But, immediately following the game, he and his teammates discussed ways on how to improve on their performance.

"I think that we lacked a little bit of intensity, which is a good thing, because we won and still thought that we had some work to do," Williams said. "When we were coming out of the locker room after the game, we were talking about the things that we did wrong, the things we need to work on and we still have a lot of work to do."

Williams was 7-11 from the field with a career high of 16 points. He led the team in rebounds with eight.

"We're young but scrappy," Williams said. "We've got a scrappy team. Our attitude and effort will make up for the skill level and experience. Right now, the further we get down in the season and the more effort we put forth, we'll be fine as the season goes on."

He said this year's freshmen class is probably one of the best the school has had in a long time.

"They have some big shoes to fill and they're doing well with what they have to do and that's all we can ask of them right now," Williams said.

The Bulldogs play powerhouse programs early on in the season, including UNC Chapel Hill, University of Tennessee and Duke University.

"I think if we go in as hard as we can and we play to our full abilities and give it our all, hopefully we'll stay in the game with either one of them by the end," Williams said. "Those types of games, the high major games, will get us ready for conference play and our goal is to get a conference championship and a NCAA tournament birth."

Most of those games will be televised nationally, especially the Duke game, which airs December 17th, on ESPN2.

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