ESPNU Selects UNC Asheville at Longwood as Feb. 12 Wildcard Game
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – ESPNU has selected the
UNC Asheville at Longwood men’s basketball contest as its second Big South Wildcard broadcast of the 2025-26 season, it was announced today by the Big South Conference office. The game will tip at 7:00pm inside the Joan Perry Brock Center on the campus of Longwood University in Farmville, Va.
It will be just the second all-time “Wildcard” meeting between the squads on ESPNU, as Asheville won the first national TV match-up on Jan. 12, 2023, by a score of 54-46. The Feb. 12 broadcast will be the second meeting this season, as the Bulldogs prevailed over the Lancers on Jan. 7, 72-61. In that contest,
Kameron Taylor led Asheville with 24 points while
Daniel Thomas grabbed 10 rebounds.
Asheville will be making its 20th all-time appearance in the Big South ESPNU Wildcard series (8-11 record). The Bulldogs enter this week 3-4 in Big South games (9-12 overall), with three of their four league losses being one possession defeats by a combined six points. Taylor has scored at least 20 points in all seven league tilts, and is the second-leading scorer in conference games at 24.0 points.
Justin Wright is averaging 18.0 points in league games (8th among the leaders), followed by Big South Preseason Player of the Year
Toyaz Solomon’s 15.7 points.
Longwood’s Wildcard selection is their 13th all-time (4-8 record). Since the Jan. 7 setback at UNC Asheville, the Lancers are 3-1, with the lone loss being by two points.
Elijah Tucker has paced Longwood during the Big South season with 14.9 points, 8.4 rebounds and a 65.7 field goal percentage.
Redd Thompson Jr. is averaging 12.3 points in league play, followed by
Jacoi Hutchinson (10.9) and
Emanuel Richards (10.3). Longwood enters this week tied for third in the Big South standings at 4-3 (12-10 overall).
This is the 13th year of the Big South’s ESPNU Wildcard series, which features four Thursday primetime broadcasts –- Jan. 29 (Presbyterian at High Point – 9:00pm), Feb. 12 (UNC Asheville at Longwood – 7:00pm), Feb. 19 (7:00pm) and Feb. 26 (7:00pm) -- that are selected 14-21 days in advance. A total of 59 games have been played in the series that began in 2013-14, and the home teams are 38-21 while the 59 contests have been decided by an average of 10.07 points, with 32 (54.2 percent) of those being decided by single-digits.