By MONTE DUTTON

For the second time in three days – and for almost all of the full Big South Conference schedule — Presbyterian College’s basketball teams played the same opponents, one at Templeton Center and the other on the road.

Once again, the visiting team won both games. On Saturday afternoon, the men were at home against UNC Asheville, and the women were in Asheville. On Wednesday night, the women lost at home, and the men won at Charleston Southern.

Once again, the principal difference in UNCA’s 84-80 victory over the Blue Hose at Templeton was Drew Pember, the Bulldogs’ 6-11, fifth-year-and-thank-God-for-it dynamo from Knoxville, Tenn., a one-time Volunteer.

In Asheville, on Jan. 25, 2023, in a game UNC Asheville won 88-80 in overtime, Pember set a school record with 48 points against the Blue Hose, and that’s not all. He scored the most points of any Division I player in the country last season.

This time Pember settled for 29 points, one shy of his high mark in the season to date. He hit 7/12 shots, only two of his misses were inside the three-point line (where was 0/3), he buried 15/16 free throws and grabbed 10 rebounds.

“The guy’s got it,” PC head coach Quinton Ferrell said. “He moves like a guard. He can stretch the defense and make a three. The way [the officials] are calling it, I don’t know how you can guard him.”

As PC rallied, getting within a point twice, sending Pember to the foul line was about the same as watching an assembly line. He was unflappable and workmanlike.

UNC Asheville (10-7, 2-0), Big South champion last season and preseason favorite this, won for the sixth straight time versus Presbyterian (9-8, 1-1), but the Blue Hose played the Bulldogs closely in both games last year, when PC was last in the Big South with a 5-27 record, 1-17 in the league. The first game went to overtime and the latter the Bulldogs won by four (76-72) in Clinton.

Basketball is like neither horseshoes nor cornhole. Close doesn’t matter.

Most of what happened was true to form. UNCA won. It was close. The Bulldogs’ scoring was top-heavy. PC’s was balanced.

Five scored in double figures for the Blue Hose. Junior guard Marquis Barnett, he of Saginaw, Mich., led the way with 22 points, not to mention six assists.

Jamahri Harvey scored 11. Kobe Stewart paired 10 points with four assists. Jonah Pierce amassed 10 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Samage Teel scored 10 points and distributed 10 assists. Ten assists! Presbyterian had 20 of them in 29 field goals.

Chasing Pember closely for UNCA were Nick McMullen with 20 points and five rebounds and Josh Banks with 14 points and five rebounds. McMillen hit 9/11 shots.

As a team, the Bulldogs hit 21/25 free throws. The Blue Hose were 14/20.

It was a shooter’s game. Presbyterian shot .527 (29/55) and UNC Asheville .509 (29/57) from the floor. The Bulldogs hit eight triples to PC’s five, but the percentages were .007 apart.

Presbyterian had no remedy for Pember. The Big South has no team that does. At game’s end, the Blue Hose had four – Barnett, Teel, Trevon Reddish-Rhone and Kobe Stewart – playing with four fouls. The latter two spent much of the afternoon trying to contain Pember.

Ferrell said the game was lost in the first half, which ended with the Blue Hose trailing by 10 (45-35). Just before the midpoint, Presbyterian had its biggest lead, 21-14, on Barnett’s fast-break bucket. In the final 11:01, the Bulldogs outscored the Hose, 31-14.

“Obviously, the second half hadn’t been played, and we outplayed them in the second half,” Ferrell said. “But, in the first half, we were rolling along, and then, from about the eight-minute mark to the close of the half, I think they were plus-11.

“They went up 10, and I think, to me, that was when the game was decided because we had all the momentum and were playing really well. We had them on a pace to score 30 or 35 points in the half, and they wound up with 45. They’re an explosive team.”

The Blue Hose almost reeled in the Bulldogs in the latter half. A Teel jumper first brought PC within four. It happened three more times. Then a triple by Stewart and a layup by Barnett put the Hose within one (78-77) and 1:14 still on the clock.

Another Barnett layup put the edge back at one (80-79) with 38 seconds left. It was 82-80 with five seconds left, but PC kept having to foul and UNCA kept hitting free throws.

Winthrop arrives at Templeton Center on Wednesday to take on the Blue Hose at 7 p.m.

Take a look at the stats here.

Meanwhile, playing concurrently at the foot of the Blue Ridge, Mara Neira led the women past UNC Asheville, 55-46.

The junior guard from Galicia, Spain, scored 20 points and added six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Tilda Sjokvist chipped in 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Paige Kindseth pulled down eight rebounds. Four Blue Hose had three or more assists.

Presbyterian (10-7, 1-1) took control at the outset, taking a 19-8 lead after a quarter. UNC Asheville (6-9, 0-2) scored two more points the rest of the way. PC once lead by 20 points in the second quarter, but UNCA scored the half’s final nine points.

“This was a big bounce-back win for the team,” Sharp stated. “We came out really ready to play. In the first five minutes of the game, we had unbelievable intensity and ball movement. We hunted the paint with the ball and that’s what we wanted to do.”

McKInley Brooks-Sumpter led the Bulldogs with 14 points. Abigail Wilson added 10 points and eight rebounds.

In both halves, UNCA got hot at the end when it didn’t much matter. PC led by 16 points with 2:14 to play.

PC’s Wednesday game in Rock Hill versus Winthrop begins at 6 p.m.

Take a look at the stats here.

Keep those cards, letters and donations coming. The sports seasons are back at full speed. In the fall, I’m up all night on weekends. In winter, I’m up late most nights.

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