The Charlotte 49ers (10-2) got back on track Tuesday night with a 91-80 victory over the visiting Mercer Bears (4-8). Coming off a disappointing 81-48 road loss to Old Dominion last Wednesday, the 49ers got back to what they do best: scoring the ball inside.
Three of Charlotte's bigs scored in double figures Tuesday night and after two sub-60 point outings, the 49ers put away 91 on Mercer. Charlotte's leading scorer with 17.3 points per game, Shamari Spears scored 23 points and pulled down six rebounds, freshman Chris Braswell recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 14 points and 14 boards and Phil Jones came off the bench to score 11 points and grab eight rebounds.
"In the second half, our offense played really well," 49ers head coach Bobby Lutx said. "We got good play out of our big guys. Phil made some huge plays."
With point guard DiJuan Harris on the bench with foul trouble early, combo guard Derrio Green ran the point almost to perfection Tuesday night and turned in his best outing of the season. The Florida native scored a season-high 23 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists in Harris' absence.
Charlotte started off slowly, and it looked like they might be in for another sloppy game against the Bears. The Niners started off on just 5-17 shooting from the field and trailed 21-14 at the 10:19 mark when Mercer's E.J. Kusnyer buried a three-pointer to give the Bears their biggest lead of the night.
Following Kusnyer's three, the Niners went on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes, using strong inside play from Spears and Green's jump shooting to give Charlotte a lead they wouldn't relinquish. The 49ers finished strong and held a 40-36 lead.
In the second half, Charlotte kept trying to pull away from the Bears, but Mercer simply wouldn't go away. The 49ers built leads of 13, 12 and 11 points but Mercer would come right back and chip the lead down to single digits. The 49ers closed the game making 7-of-8 free throws to make the final margin 91-80.
The 49ers, who have now won eight of their last nine games, are off to their best start since the 2004 season when they started 12-2 on their way to the NCAA Tournament.
James Florence, who scored 22 points for Mercer, broke Sam Mitchell's career scoring record. Florence has 2,001 points, passing Mitchell's 1,987. Kusnyer added 14 for Mercer, Jeff Smith scored 13 and Daniel Emerson scored 12 points and had 13 rebounds.
Charlotte returns to action Saturday night against nationally-ranked Georgia Tech at 7:00 p.m.
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