Derrio Green scored a game-high 26 points and the Charlotte 49ers overcame a 10-point deficit with a furious second half rally to knock off No. 15 Temple 74-64 at Halton Arena Wednesday night.
Chris Braswell scored 14 of his 15 points in the second half and Shamari Spears scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Charlotte (15-5, 5-1) to create a mess at the top of the Atlantic 10. With the win, Charlotte created a three-way tie at the top of the conference with Temple and idle Xavier, all at 5-1 in conference play.
“It was a great win for us, you know we’ve been working hard all season and I think it’s time it starts paying off,” Spears said after the win. “Last week we went on the road and got a buzzer-beater from An’Juan (Wilderness) and this week we got a home win against a very good team in Temple. I think it speaks volumes for the hard work we’ve been putting in.”
The Niners used a stifling zone defense to confuse the Owls and caused them to resort to low-percentage shots for the entire night. The Owls shot just 35 percent from the field, shot 11-of-35 from downtown and lost for the first time since getting trounced at home by then No. 1 Kansas on Jan. 2.
“We didn’t attack it (the zone defense) very well, we didn’t look very fluid as we were attacking,” Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy said. “We did get some decent shots, we rushed a few. We didn’t make many shots in the second half. We need to get the ball inside a little bit more.”
Ryan Brooks led Temple in the scoring category with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting in 40 minutes of play and Luiz Guzman scored a career-high 14 points as the Owls lost for just the second time in 15 games.
“We knew coming into this game that Charlotte was a very good team at home and we knew they were looking forward to this game,” Brooks said following the loss. “We felt we had to establish ourselves early and just play a consistent ball game. Credit them, they did a great job, they zoned up in the first and second half and made us kind of stagnant on offense.”
The Charlotte faithful, who hadn’t had a signature home win since knocking off No. 16 Xavier last Feb., swarmed over the Halton Arena floor after the final seconds ticked off the clock, sending the arena into a confetti-filled frenzy.
Plagued by injuries a year ago, Charlotte won just 11 games and won only five games in-conference. With three new players added to the starting line-up, the 49ers now have one of the best front lines in the A-10 with Spears and Braswell and have one of the best young guards with Green.
“It’s a great win for our program, I think we did beat a great team tonight,” Charlotte Head Coach Bobby Lutz said. “Halton Arena was back like it can be and it made it a lot of fun. Second half, I just kept telling them that if we hung around, we were going to make a Charlotte run, I didn’t know when, but I knew it was going to come.”
It looked like it might be another long night for the Niners against a ranked opponent when they fell behind 7-0 early in the first half. Charlotte got back in the game, but it was hard to stay with Temple and the hot-shooting Brooks. The standout senior guard connected on four of his first six 3-pointers and had 12 points at the halfway mark. After Scootie Randall nailed a three to put Temple up 28-18 with 4:44 remaining, Charlotte went on a 10-1 run and closed the gap to one before Guzman knocked down a three with just two seconds left on the clock to put Temple up 32-28 at the half.
Temple’s biggest second-half lead was seven points, 41-34 at the 14:59 mark. But Charlotte started pounding the ball inside to Spears, a Boston College transfer and Braswell, a candidate for A-10 Rookie of the Year.
Held to just one point and two rebounds in the first half, Braswell exploded in the second half with 14 points and five rebounds and led Charlotte to it’s second win over a Top 20 team this season, the first time Charlotte has accomplished that feat since the 2004-05 season when they made the NCAA Tournament.
“The zone was the big difference tonight without question,” Lutz said. “Our guys did a great job of being active and forcing some guys to shoot that maybe they didn’t want. We just had so many guys play well. It was a great team win against a great team.”
With Green’s layup at the 7:02 mark, Charlotte took their first lead of the game at 50-49 and after a counter-jumper by Temple’s Brooks to make the score 51-50, the Niners took over. Six-foot-10-inch Phil Jones knocked down an 18-footer to put the 49ers up 52-51 and Braswell scored the next six points to put Charlotte up 58-51 with 3:33 left.
Temple’s Juan Fernandez scored his only points of the night on a 3-pointer to close the gap to just four points at 60-56 with 2:37 left after his status was uncertain coming into the game because of concussion-like symptoms. It showed, Fernandez scored just three points on 1-of-5 shooting and fouled out in the closing seconds of the game.
Charlotte locked down defensively the rest of the way and Green capped off the win with a steal and breakaway dunk with 34 seconds left to make the score 73-62. The 49ers have come a long way since last season’s meeting between the two teams in Philadelphia in which Temple trounced Charlotte 80-53 to put an exclamation point on Charlotte’s miserable season.
“It’s just fun to be in the fight again,” Lutz said. “I’m just thankful for our fans, that’s the way I wish our crowd was every game. Think of how good we would be if they came like that every game.”
The Niners will look to avoid a letdown on Saturday when they travel to Amherst, Mass. to take on the Minutemen at 6 p.m.
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