ESPNU Selects UNC Asheville at Radford as Feb. 20 Wildcard Game
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – ESPNU has selected the
UNC Asheville at Radford men’s basketball contest as its fifth Big South Wildcard broadcast of the 2024-25 season, it was announced today by the Big South Conference office. The game will move from its current Wednesday, Feb. 19 date to Thursday, Feb. 20 and will tip at 7:00pm inside the Dedmon Center on the campus of Radford University.
It will be the fifth all-time “Wildcard” meeting between the squads on ESPNU and first in two years. Asheville entered this week in second-place in the Big South standings with an 8-2 record, and won the first matchup this season with the Highlanders, 72-65, on Jan. 29. The Bulldogs were led by
Jordan Marsh’s 19 points, and are looking to sweep the season series for the third consecutive year. Marsh is the scoring leader in Big South games with 24.4 points, and in league action, Asheville averages 84.1 points as a team and owns a conference-best +5.40 turnover margin.
Radford, which is 3-1 all-time vs. Asheville in the Big South’s ESPNU “Wildcard” series, sits in fourth-place in the conference standings at 6-5, and was led by
Brandon Maclin in the first contest with 19 points. The Highlanders’ bench scoring is tops in the Big South with its 31.27 average, which ranks 16th nationally. Radford is allowing the fewest points in conference games this season (70.6) and is second in 3-point field goal percentage against Big South foes at 40.1 percent.
This is the 12th year of the Big South’s ESPNU Wildcard series, which again features six Thursday primetime broadcasts –- Jan. 2 (at High Point 76, Radford 58), Jan. 16 (at Longwood 82, High Point 80), Feb. 6 (at UNC Asheville 78, Gardner-Webb 70), Feb. 13 (Longwood at High Point - 7:00pm), Feb. 20 (UNC Asheville at Radford - 7:00pm) and Feb. 27 (7:00pm) -- that are selected 7-14 days in advance. A total of 56 games have been played in the series that began in 2013-14, and while the home teams are 36-20, the 56 contests have been decided by an average of 9.52 points, with 32 (57.1 percent) of those being decided by single-digits.