The Elon University men's basketball team simply could not break into the University of North Carolina at Asheville's defense.
UNCA held Elon to its lowest scoring total of the season, as the Phoenix fell 78-67 in non-conference action Tuesday night at Alumni Gym.
It's the first time in this young season that Elon's lost back-to-back games. The Phoenix struggled on offense from the onset, was able to come within two midway through the second half but fell victim to a 10-0 Bulldogs run and never recovered.
Sophomore forward Tyler Seibring led Elon with 21 points. Senior guard Luke Eddy and sophomore guard Dainan Swoope each had 12, and sophomore guard Steven Santa Ana added 11.
"From our point, I don't think we played with the edge necessary to play in this game," Matheny said. "Their defense is good. They have very good length. They get a lot of deflections, get a lot of steals. They position themselves to make it difficult for you to score."
That Asheville did. After Santa Ana's 3-pointer on the opening possession, Elon missed 10 of its next 11 shots, including an 0-for-6 stretch. After Swoope buried a three and drew the foul, the Phoenix went nearly eight minutes without a made field goal.
Elon turned the ball over 15 times, and shot 38.6 percent from the field.
"They did pretty well with pressuring us," Swoope said. "For us, we need to work on setting screens for each other and taking our time offensively. You can't get into a rush like we did at some points tonight."
The Phoenix used an 11-3 run to come within two at 45-43 after a 3-pointer. Seibring missed a 3 but grabbed his own rebound and scored to cut the UNCA lead to 47-45.
Then the Bulldogs, who played in the NCAA Tournament last year as the Big South champions, responded with a 10-0 run and never looked back.
Kevin Vannatta led Asheville with 17 points, Ahmad Thomas had 16 and MaCio Teague supplied 15.
"They're a fighting team," Seibring said. "That's what helped them with their success last year. This is an experience. Every game is supposed to help us out."
"We need to respond. What we're trying to do isn't going to be easy. We don't know what the experience is yet. It depends how we respond. Hopefully we can respond in the right way with the toughness we're trying to bring to this program."
NOTES: This is also Elon's biggest loss of the season at 11. Each of its previous losses were by five or fewer points. Senior forward Brian Dawkins, who had 17 points in each of Elon's last two games and was named Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week on Monday, scored his lone point of the night on a free throw midway through the second half. He had nine rebounds. Elon, which is now 6-3, plays at Radford University on Saturday before taking a seven-day break for exams.