ASHEVILLE, N.C. – In a game of wild swings and huge runs, Gardner-Webb dropped a tight road game, 65-60, at UNC Asheville Wednesday night.

Asheville (13-9, 6-3 Big South) used a 15-0 run midway through the second half to turn the tide of the game and regain the lead, but Gardner-Webb (10-12, 5-4 Big South) went on a 15-5 run of its own to pull within one point with less than a minute to play.

Asheville made two free throws with 21.7 seconds left to push its lead to a full possession, and Gardner-Webb threw the ball out of bounds in the half court with 8.3 seconds left. Two more free throws on the other end sealed the game.

The Runnin' Bulldogs played the game shorthanded, with three regular rotation players unavailable due to injuries. It was the fourth-consecutive road loss in league play for Gardner-Webb.

DJ Laster led Gardner-Webb with a career-high 25 points, David Efianayi added 18 points and eight assists and Liam O'Reilly scored 11 to go with nine rebounds. Patrick Zeck added six points, as only four GWU players scored in the game.

Gardner-Webb held a 31-29 lead at halftime after closing the opening 20 minutes with a 16-6 run of its own.

GWU went up by five on its first possession of the second half – as David Efianayi knocked down a corner three – but Asheville answered with a 5-0 run to tie the game on a Teague three-pointer. GWU followed with a 5-0 run of its own to go up 39-34 on Efianayi's backdoor cut and layup with 16:36 on the clock.

Gardner-Webb maintained its five-point margin over the next four minutes, as Asheville had trouble finding its range. Asheville was able to maintain possession for large stretches, however, attacking the offensive glass.

A transition three from Miller got the Asheville crowd into the game and a layup from Jonathan Baehre with 9:52 on the clock tied the game at 45. A Gardner-Webb turnover after hard contact underneath the GWU basket set up another run out for Asheville, and Miller drained his second transition trey of the half to put the host Bulldogs back in front, 48-45, with 9:07.

Thomas pushed the lead to 50-45 with a short shot, then Miller connected on a four-point play with 7:59 left in the game to push the decisive run to 13-0 and give Asheville its largest lead of the game at 54-45.

As Gardner-Webb's scoring drought extended past five minutes, and Thomas nailed a baseline jumper to put Asheville up 56-45 with 5:19 to play.  Laster threw down an alley oop dunk on the break to break Gardner-Webb's scoring drought, and Efianayi converted a three-point play with 4:20 left to trim the lead back to 56-50. Thomas answered, however, bulling inside on the baseline to convert his own trifecta.

Gardner-Webb eventually worked the score back to 61-56 on a Laster hook shot with 2:05 remaining and – after forcing a shot clock violation – got within 61-58 on another Laster hook with 1:26 left.

The Runnin' Bulldogs caught a break when Miller missed two free throws with 56.7 seconds left and Efianayi went to the line after a foul on the rebound. His free throws with 56.3 seconds left cut the lead to just one point.

Asheville missed on the other end, but a scramble for the rebound wound up bouncing to the home team with 21.7 seconds left.

MaCio Teague made both free throws for a 63-60 lead, and Gardner-Webb turned the basketball over with 8.3 seconds left.

Teague went to the line with 5.3 seconds left and made two more for the final margin.

Neither team had great success offensively in the early going of the first half, particularly from the perimeter.

Asheville worked inside for several easy buckets over the first five minutes, and pushed ahead 12-6 by the 15-minute mark on back-to-back shots from reserve Alex Wnuk and one in close from Thomas.

After Gardner-Webb trimmed the lead back to four, 14-10, on a dunk by Laster, Asheville got a three-pointer from Miller – the first of the game from either side – and a steal and dunk from Thomas to go up 19-10 with 11:48 to play in the half.

Gardner-Webb remained ice cold, making just 4-of-16 to start the game. 

An Efianayi trey cut the lead to six (21-15), but Asheville continued to get easy looks for Thomas and took a 23-15 lead with less than nine minutes in the half.

Gardner-Webb embarked on a 15-2 run to go in front for the first time since the very early going. Back-to-back treys by O'Reilly put GWU up 26-25 with 5:32 left before halftime – and another O'Reilly trey pushed the lead to 29-25 on the next trip.

Asheville responded with a 4-0 run to tie the game up, with Thomas gathering another steal and fast break dunk with 1:45 left before halftime.

Laster responded with a jump hook with 34.7 seconds left to put Gardner-Webb up 31-29. Asheville held for the last shot, but Thomas' floater was off the mark right before the horn.

After its cool start, the 'Dogs closed the half by making 7-of-11 shots (63.6 percent), and made its final trio of three-pointers after starting off the game at a 1-for-10 clip.

The Runnin' Bulldogs shot 42.9 percent for the game, but were only 5-of-18 from long range. The backcourt duo of Efianayi and O'Reilly combined to make just 7-of-24 shots from the floor, but the duo made all five of Gardner-Webb's three-pointers.

Gardner-Webb held a 36-34 edge on the backboards, but saw Asheville corral 13 offensive boards and turn that into a slight advantage in second-chance points.

GWU limited Asheville to a 37.1 percent effort from the floor, with Teague going just 1-for-9 overall. Asheville took advantage of its physical, 1-3-1 defensive scheme, however, forcing 15 Gardner-Webb turnovers that wound up sparking 18 points off of those mistakes.

Thomas worked his way to 25 points on an active 11-for-24 night shooting. Miller added 15 points and eight assists, Teague finished with nine points and Baehre scored eight.

Gardner-Webb will get back home to begin the second half of the Big South Conference slate, hosting Longwood Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm. The Lancers (6-16, 3-6 Big South) took a 79-73 win over Gardner-Webb in Virginia earlier this month.

The game will stream live on the Big South Network with Fabian Fuentes on the call.