CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tournament MVP Drew Pember scored 29 points and Taijon Jones added 24, 19 in the second half, to lead top seeded UNC Asheville to a 77-73 win over Campbell Sunday in the Big South Championship final at Bojangles' Coliseum.
 
The Bulldogs (27-7) closed the game on a 13-2 run and made their final six shots to claim the program's sixth Big South title and first since 2016.
 
Jay Pal led seventh seed Campbell (16-18) with a career-high 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.  Fifth-year senior Ricky Clemons added 17 points in his final game, while Big South freshman of the year Anthony Dell'Orso had 12, plus seven rebounds.  Devon Dunn came off the bench to made three treys and finish with nine points.
 
Pember finished 9-of-19 from the floor, 10-of-12 from the line with eight rebounds and three blocks for the Bulldogs, who earned the league's automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.  Jones scored 13-straight points for Asheville to cut a 12-point deficit to just four (71-67) with 2:51 left.
 
Clemons' bucket in the paint gave the Camels a 73-70 advantage with 1:44 remaining, but Pember made two from the line and Jones hit his fifth three to give the Bulldogs the lead for good (75-73) with 55 seconds to play.

Pal's corner three rimmed out with 23 seconds to go and Asheville made 2-of-4 from the line in the final 20 seconds.
 
Jones joined Pember on the all-tournament team, along with Pal, Dell'Orso and Jordan Gainey of USC Upstate.
 
Making its third title game appearance since 2017, Campbell shot 46.8 percent (29-62) from the floor and made 9-of-24 threes.
 
Asheville finished 27-of-55 (.491) overall 9-of-23 (.391) beyond the arc and made four more free throws (14-21) than Campbell (6-10) attempted.
 
Pal scored 16 first-half points and Dell'Orso added 10 as the Camels took a 38-35 lead at the break.
 
NOTES:

• The Camels defeated second-seeded Longwood 81-68 in Friday's quarterfinal before downing third-seeded Radford 72-71 Saturday.  CU defeated 10th seed Presbyterian 68-63 in Wednesday's opening round.
• CU was the first seventh seed to reach the Big South title game since the Camels and Chris Clemons advanced to the 2017 final where they lost to top seed Winthrop.
• Campbell owns a 20-20 record all-time in Big South tourney play, 6-1 in the semifinal round and 1-6 in the finals.  Campbell reached the Big South final 3 times in the last 7 years and seven times overall (1987, 1989, 1992, 1994, 2017, 2021, 2023).

 
2023 Hercules Tires Big South Championship (at Charlotte)
 
Wednesday, March 1 – First Round (ESPN+)
#9 Charleston Southern 72, #8 High Point 70
#7 Campbell 68, #10 Presbyterian 62
 
Friday, March 3 – Quarterfinals (ESPN+)
#1 UNC Asheville 75, Charleston Southern 66
#4 USC Upstate 77, #5 Gardner-Webb 76
Campbell 81, #2 Longwood 68
#3 Radford 78, #6 Winthrop 69
 
Saturday, March 4 – Semifinals (ESPN+)
UNC Asheville 66, USC Upstate 62
Campbell 72, Radford 71 (2:00)
 
Saturday, March 5 – Final (ESPN2)
UNC Asheville 77, Campbell 73