Nov. 22, 2005

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. - Kristal Hood went over the 1,000 point mark in her career in the second half and finished the game with a team-high 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds in UNC Asheville's 58-46 victory at Gardner-Webb on Tuesday night.

Stacy Shepard scored 11 points and Amanda Elder matched her career high with 10 rebounds as the Bulldogs overcame a poor shooting night to move to 3-0 on the season.

Asheville won its first road game of the season for the first time since the 1983-84 season while starting the season with three wins for the first time since the 1988-89 season.

Gardner-Webb drops to 0-3 shooting 28 percent from the floor and committing 25 turnovers. Shemeka Smith led the team with nine points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

"I am proud that Kristal (Hood) was able to get her 1,000th point. She has been a great player for us," said Asheville head coach Betsy Blose. "I was proud that we held our own on the road when they cut the lead to seven in the second half, we didn't panic and continued to play our game."

Asheville held Gardner-Webb to just 15 points in the first half as GWU shot just 17 percent in the opening half. UNCA used a 9-0 run in the middle of the opening period to build a 14-4 lead. The Bulldogs maintained the 10 point advantage the rest of the half and went into the locker room leading 25-15.

The visiting Bulldogs built their largest lead at 39-24 on a jumper by Shepard at the 10:56 mark of the second half.

GWU pulled to within seven points at 50-43 on a lay-up by Smith at the 5:13 mark but UNCA closed out the game on an 8-3 run.

"Our game is to attack the basket and get to the free throw line. We don't shoot a lot of three-pointers. We want to get to the line and we did that tonight," said Blose. "When your offense struggles you have to rely on your defense and I was proud of our defensive effort tonight."

Asheville shot just 31 percent from the floor but went 24-for-32 (75 percent) from the free throw line while GWU went just 10-for-20 from the charity stripe. Both teams grabbed 44 rebounds.

Hood became the 11th player in UNCA women's basketball history to score 1,000 points. She now has 1,006 points and is seven points shy of Tara McMinn (1989-92) for 10th place on the Bulldogs' all-time scoring list.

Asheville will return to action next Tuesday as the Bulldogs face 8th ranked North Carolina in a 6 p.m. game in Chapel Hill. The game will be broadcast on the internet at www.uncabulldogs.com with the pre-game show beginning at 5:50 p.m.