BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. - At home for the first time in Big South play, the Gardner-Webb women's basketball team (4-12, 1-1 Big South) was unable to overturn a first half deficit on Wednesday night, falling to visiting UNC Asheville (6-10, 1-1 Big South) by a 62-51 final
Gardner-Webb actually got off to a strong start on Wednesday night, carrying over from two good performances at the end of 2025, into a 6-0 lead. Both redshirt senior guard
Jaelyn Acker and junior guard
Amina Gray connected from three early. UNC Asheville did immediately turn the deficit around however, responding with a 9-0 run before the first media timeout and an eventual 18-11 lead after one
Allowing only nine second quarter points, the Runnin' Bulldogs chipped away at the Asheville lead headed into halftime. Junior guard
Anaya Harris led the charge, scoring nine of the Runnin' Bulldogs 12 points in the frame, as Gardner-Webb closed the halftime score to just 27-23. GWU was held scoreless over the final 3:36 of the second.
The Runnin' Bulldogs third quarter was an adventure. Gardner-Webb would face its largest deficit to that point with 8:01 to go, down 35-24, after UNC Asheville took advantage of both a shooting foul and technical foul on the same play for four free throws. The Dawgs then responded with threes from Gray and Acker, and eight more points from Harris to cut the Asheville lead to 39-38 with 4:20 remaining. An 11-2 run by Asheville reversed things almost right away, as GWU trailed 50-40 entering the fourth.
After going down 18, a late run brought the Runnin' Bulldogs to back within 11, but a 12-11 advantage for UNC Asheville in the fourth salted the contest away, as Gardner-Webb fell by a 62-51 final score
LEADERS
Harris led all scorers in the game with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while Gray was the lone other Runnin' Bulldog in double figures, adding 13 on four made three-pointers
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Gardner-Webb finished 17-of-55 as a team from the floor and 7-of-28 from three, Defensively, the Runnin' Bulldogs forced UNC Asheville into 27 turnovers
UP NEXT
GWU is back in action on January 10th, hosting USC Upstate at 2 pm
