BOILING SPRINGS – Jaron Lane scored 19 of his game-high 26 points in the second half and UNC Asheville held off Gardner-Webb, 81-77, Wednesday in both teams’ league opener.
Gardner-Webb (7-9, 0-1 Big South) jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the early going and had a stranglehold on momentum, but Asheville (7-8, 1-0 Big South) went on a 10-0 run to get back in the game – and closed the half on a 27-7 blitz that gave the visitors a 36-30 lead at the half.
Asheville then came out of the locker room on fire, making their first six shots to push the lead to 45-33 less than two minutes in. Gardner-Webb was able to get the lead back to single digits, but Asheville kept its shooting at a high level the rest of the way.
A layup with 12:43 from Tyler Strange cut the lead to 51-46, but a 3-pointer from lane and a layup from center D.J. Cunningham got the advantage back into double digits. With just under seven minutes to play, Gardner-Webb was finally able to force errors and get back into contention.
Tyrell Nelson drained a jumper with 6:57 left, sparking a 12-2 Article source: http://www.gwusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=10300&ATCLID=209368263
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