National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
N.C. Asheville 77, Winthrop 68
When: 2:30 PM ET, Sunday, March 6, 2016
Where: John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center, Buies Creek, North Carolina
Officials: # AJ Desai, # Jeff Heater, # Aaron Smith
Attendance: 2538

Freshman guard Dwayne Sutton had season highs of 25 points and 18 rebounds to lead UNC Asheville past Winthrop 77-68 in the Big South tournament title game Sunday at Buies Creek, N.C., to claim the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.

Senior forward Sam Hughes added 15 points -- all in the second half -- as the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (22-11) advanced to the NCAA field for the first time since 2012 and the fourth time overall. UNC Asheville recovered from an 11-point, first-half deficit en route to knocking off the second-seeded Eagles.

Senior guard Jimmy Gavin scored 31 points for Winthrop (23-9), which shot just 35.2 percent from the field. Junior guard Keon Johnson, who is averaging a team-leading 18.7 points per game, had just two points on 1-of-16 shooting.

UNC Asheville went ahead to stay on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Dylan Smith that made it 47-46 with 11:39 remaining. The Bulldogs led by as many as 12 points while closing out the victory.
Top Game Performances
 
N.C. Asheville   Winthrop
Dwayne Sutton 25 Scoring Jimmy Gavin 31
Kevin Vannatta 4 Assists Xavier Cooks 3
Dwayne Sutton 18 Rebounds Xavier Cooks 12
Dwayne Sutton 10 Free Throws Made Josh Davenport 5
Sam Hughes 1 Steals Bjorn Broman 1
Sam Hughes 4 Blocks Duby Okeke 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
N.C. Asheville 77 42.9 5-16 18-29 6 44 5 5 6
Winthrop 68 35.2 5-33 13-17 11 43 3 2 12