The Charlotte 49ers (11-5, 1-1) welcome in a young Saint Louis team to Halton Arena Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. The Billikens (11-5; 2-0) are looking to start 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1989-90 season. The game will air nationally on CBS College Sports with Tom McCarthy and Steve Lappas.
Kwamain Mitchell led Saint Louis with 19 points while Kyle Cassity added 15 as Saint Louis knocked off Duquesne 79-75 on Wednesday evening. Mitchell, ranked seventh in the A-10 in scoring, averages 16.2 points per game and has a team high of 43 assists and 26 steals.
In his third campaign with the Billikens, head coach Rick Majerus boasts a 45-34 overall record and is leading Saint Louis to one of their best starts in recent seasons. Majerus sports a 467-181 overall record in his 22-year coaching career and has taken 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament and four to the NIT.
As of last week, the Billikens boasted the ninth-ranked scoring defense in the nation at 57.4 points per game and with Majerus at the helm, are 29-4 when holding their opponents to 60 points or less. Saint Louis finished last season with the third-best three-point scoring defense nationally at 28.2 percent. This season, teams aren’t faring much better. Opponents are shooting just 26.5 percent from behind the arc which ranks the Billikens seventh nationally.
Saint Louis is having a surprisingly good season considering their youth. The Billikens, by two different measures are the youngest team in the country with just one upperclassman and 91.7 percent of their roster being underclassmen.
Although Charlotte has struggled scoring the ball lately, they are still averaging 75.6 points per game and are shooting 42.6 percent from the field. The Niners are much improved from the foul-line this season as they are shooting a league-best 73.6 percent. In each of the three seasons in which the 49ers averaged more than 75 points per game, they have made the NCAA Tournament.
The 49ers raced out to a 9-1 start this season but have since lost four of six games. Three of the four losses have come on the road against Top 100 RPI teams and the fourth loss came at home to #20 Georgia Tech, Charlotte’s lone home loss of the season. Overall, the Niners are 6-1 at home and recently posted their first A-10 victory of the season against a scrappy St. Bonaventure squad.
The 49ers have already matched their win-total for the 2008-09 season (11). Nine of Charlotte’s 11 wins have come by double-digits; the most since the 49ers won 12 games by double-digits during the 2004-05 season.
To win this game against a stingy Saint Louis defense, the 49ers will have to break out of their scoring slump. Since the win against Gardner-Webb, Charlotte has broken the 70-point plateau only three times and are just 3-4 in those games.
The deciding factor in this game might be the home floor for the 49ers. Charlotte is 6-1 at home and is outscoring opponents by an average of 14.8 points per game. They have also averaged 81.4 points per game and are shooting .443 from the field. To knock off the Baby Billikens, it’s plain and simple, Charlotte must score the ball better.
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