Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, January 20: UNC Asheville at High Point

Under the Radar Game of the Day: UNC Asheville at High Point, 7:00 PM Eastern, bigsouthsports.com

There are few matchups that could have tempted me to pass on Howard and Delaware State playing the remainder of a game that was suspended back on January 11 due to the clocks at Delaware State not working properly and being unable to be fixed at that time.  Howard currently leads that game 51-48 with 15:41 left in the second half when play will resume at 4:30 PM Eastern today.  However, when what could be the game of the year in the Big South Conference is on the schedule, even the broken clocks in Dover, Delaware cannot keep me away.

Tonight, the High Point Panthers will host the UNC Asheville Bulldogs in a battle for first place in the Big South.  High Point enters the game with a record of 12-6 overall and 5-2 in league play.  The Panthers lost a pair of heart-breakers in mid-December, at NC State and at William & Mary — losses that we had been afraid would carry over into conference play, but luckily for them did not.  They won three straight league games which (when added to a pair of early December wins) brought their conference record to 5-0 heading into last week.  Last week was another story though, as the Panthers lost at Winthrop and at home to Coastal Carolina, dropping into a second place tie in the conference standings with Gardner-Webb.  It is imperative that High Point bounce back tonight, especially if they are going to find a way to finally get their star senior, John Brown, into the Big Dance.  At this point in my write-up, I would normally quote Brown’s stats.  Instead, today you can see for yourself.  Just check out his web page: http://johnbrown.highpointpanthers.com/.  Don’t forget to pick up your jaw off the floor after watching the highlights.

High Point will be hosting UNC Asheville tonight.  Asheville currently sits at 13-6 overall and 6-1 in conference play.  Their non-conference slate included a win at Georgetown back on December 19.  They also already have a win over Gardner-Webb in league play, though did suffer a loss last week in overtime at Radford.  UNCA enters play tonight with the best RPI (131) and KenPom (124) rating in the conference.  The Bulldogs are led by Ahmad Thomas, who has already scored four double-doubles on the season, and Sam Hughes, who has been a fairly consistent double-digit scorer.  Also keep an eye on freshman Dylan Smith, who has scored 23, 18 and 11 points in his last three games, including hitting 5 threes in the loss at Radford.  If the Bulldogs can find a way to contain John Brown (at least somewhat) tonight, they could score the road win and place themselves firmly in control of the Big South standings.  If not, then we could be in for a heck of a battle between these two teams the rest of the way.