Green named Player of the Week

Charlotte 49ers sophomore guard Derrio Green has been named A-10 Player of the week for this week. Green scored 26 points in Charlotte's 74-64 win over #15/#15 Temple on Wednesday night and scored 34 in last night's 72-58 win over UMass in Amherst.

Green connected on 8-of-16 3-pointers against UMass, the most by any opponent in the history of the Mullins Center and for the week, totaled 60 points, seven assists and four steals in just two games.

Green propelled the Niners to their third straight A-10 road win and fifth straight overall. ESPN's Andy Katz also named Green as his "Big Man On Campus" for his 34 points on Saturday.

Green and the Niners will look for their sixth consecutive win Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. when they welcome the George Washington Colonials to Halton Arena.

Green outduels Harris in Amherst

Derrio Green scored a career-high 34 points on 8-of-16 shooting from downtown and outdueled UMass point guard Ricky Harris (25 points) to lead Charlotte to a 72-58 win over the Minutemen in Amherst, Mass.

Green nailed five 3-pointers in the first half on his way to 21 points and give the Niners a 34-26 halftime lead. Charlotte trailed 9-6 but went on a 15-0 run sparked by three Green tre's to make the score 21-9 with 10:40 left in the first.

UMass came out firing in the second half and trimmed a 10-point Charlotte lead down to one at 37-36 with 16:10 remaining in the game. After UMass got within one, Phil Jones took over. The six-foot-10-inch center scored seven straight points that included two foul-line jumpers and his second 3-pointer of the season, sparking a 15-3 run that virtually put the Minutemen away.

Another Green 3-pointer pushed the Niner lead to 58-41 with 6:26 left and Charlotte was able to make enough free throws over the final minutes to seal the win.

The win was the third straight conference road win for the Niners a year after going 0-8 on the road in A-10 play. Green's 34-point night was the third consecutive game in which he has scored 20 points or more and his eight 3-pointers was a career-high.

Jones added 12 points for Charlotte (16-5; 6-1) as the Niners shot 40 percent from the field and 43 percent from long-range while holding UMass to 34 percent from the field and just 14 percent from behind the arc.

Shamari Spears was held to a season-low four points and freshman sensation Chris Braswell fouled out after collecting seven points and seven rebounds for Charlotte.

Harris led UMass with 25 points and Anthony Gurley added 11 for the Minutemen.

Charlotte returns to action Wednesday night against George Washington at 7:30 p.m. in Halton Arena.

Niners topple Billikens Saturday afternoon

The Charlotte 49ers women's basketball team (13-8; 6-1) won their sixth straight game Saturday afternoon, knocking off the visiting St. Louis Billikens (7-14; 1-5) 63-56 to move to 6-1 in A-10 play this season.

The Niners struggled in the first half with 14 turnovers leading to 14 Billiken points but still led at halftime, 30-28. The Niners trailed briefly at 36-34 with 14:51 left in the second half but pulled away from the Billikens the rest of the way for their 13th win of the season.

Charlotte outrebounded the Billikens 41-31 but lost the battle in the paint, getting outscored 24-22 by the Billikens' physical inside players.

Even with the bad weather, Niner Nation still came out and supported the 49ers to their ninth straight home victory.

Charlotte had three players in double-figures, led by Aysha Jones who scored 19 and also notched her 1,000th career point late in the first half. Jennifer Hailey scored 12 and Ashley Spriggs added 10 for Charlotte.

The Niners travel to Dayton Oh. Wednesday morning for an 11 a.m. match-up with the Flyers.

Game Notes: Charlotte @ UMass

49ers on a roll:

The Charlotte 49ers (15-5, 5-1), winners of four straight against A-10 opponents head up north to take on the Minutemen of Massachusetts (8-12, 2-4) in a 6:00 p.m. match-up Saturday evening. Charlotte picked up two key road wins last week at Richmond and La Salle and is coming off an impressive 74-64 win over #15/#15 Temple on Wednesday night at Halton Arena. After a miserable 2008-09 season, the 49ers have made a complete turn around and already have the same amount of conference wins (5) as they had last year and have two Top 20 wins (at #20/#18 Louisville; vs. #15/#15 Temple). The five A-10 wins the 49ers have are against teams they lost to in 2008-09.

Résumé:

As of Jan. 27, Charlotte is 42nd in RPI according to realtimerpi.com. The Niners are 3-5 against Top 50 RPI teams and are winning by an average of 13.8 points per game. Charlotte’s Top 50 RPI wins came against vs. Temple (#16); at Richmond (#40) and at Louisville (#44). All five of the Niners’ losses have come against Top 40 RPI teams (at Duke (#3); at Xavier (#15); at Tennessee (#24); vs. Georgia Tech (#29); at Old Dominion (#39)).

The all-time series:

The 49ers are 4-3 all-time against Massachusetts including 2-2 in A-10 regular-season games, 1-1 in Amherst. Charlotte recorded a 69-65 A-10 Tournament win over the Minutemen in 2008 and stole a 69-64 OT win last year at Halton Arena. UMass won the last meeting in Amherst, 86-79 in 2008.

Players to watch: UMass

Ricky Harris: A preseason A-10 first-team selection, Harris is averaging 17.5 points per game and is averaging a team-high 29.3 minutes per game. He has scored in double-figures 29 games in a row and in 82 of 116 career games at UMass. Standing at 6-foot-2, 175 pounds, Harris is extremely athletic and was named the most entertaining player in the A-10.

Anthony Gurley: A red-shirt junior, Gurley is a transfer from Wake Forest and is averaging 14.9 points and 16.6 minutes per game. Gurley is athletic, tough and has the potential to be one of the best defenders in the country. He gives the Minutemen some much-needed toughness on the wing and if he can be effective on the glass, can give UMass a good chance to pick up a victory.

Players to watch: Charlotte

Chris Braswell: An A-10 Rookie of the Year candidate, Braswell is a rebounding machine and provides the 49ers with the inside presence they lacked in 2008-09. Braswell scored 15 points, 14 in the second half and pulled down seven boards in Charlotte’s win over #15/#15 Temple on Wednesday night and is the perfect compliment to junior transfer Shamari Spears. Braswell is 34-of-37 from the charity stripe since conference play began against St. Bonaventure.

Derrio Green: Green has been a monster lately, scoring in double-figures in nine straight games, including a 31-point effort against Georgia Tech and 26 points Wednesday night against Temple. Green has averaged 15.7 points per game since conference play began and has dished out 17 assists over the last three games.

A few things to take away from the win over Temple

Holding down the fort

Opponents have always had a tough time winning in Halton Arena, with the slight exception of last year. This year, the 49ers are protecting the home floor better than they have in years. Charlotte is 8-1 at Halton this season with the lone loss coming to 20th-ranked Georgia Tech. Halton was rocking on Wednesday night as Charlotte derailed Temple’s run through the A-10 and proved to be one of the best home court advantages in the conference. Temple was 8-1 on the road before Wednesday night’s game and came in boasting one of the best defenses in the country. Charlotte exploited the Owls’ defense for 46 second-half points with their powerful inside game and shut down Temple with a tricky 2/3 zone defense.

Shooting struggles

Temple’s shooting percentage (34.4 percent) wasn’t indicative of the shot selection the Owls got in the first half. Temple used crisp, efficient passing to move the ball around the floor and get open looks at the basket and at times, passed up open looks in the paint to move the ball around the perimeter. Aside from Ryan Brooks’ hot shooting from the perimeter in the early-going, the Owls couldn’t buy an outside shot, going 11-for-35 from behind the arc. Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz eluded to the fact that the poor shooting could be attributed to Charlotte’s zone defense, which put the ball in the hands of some people that Temple didn’t really want shooting.

Frontline

Bobby Lutz’s Charlotte squads have always been known for their up-tempo style of play and reliance on the 3-point shot in big-time games. Now, Charlotte has the frontline to allow them to work the ball inside out and rely on the big men inside. Charlotte’s number of 3-point attempts have gone down, and their win total has gone up over the last three games. The Niners knocked down 8-of-15 in a crucial road win against Richmond, 7-of-22 on the road against a feisty La Salle squad and hit 4-of-15 from downtown Wednesday night. With Chris Braswell and Shamari Spears on the inside, the 49ers don’t have to rely on the 3-point shot and they showed that in the second half Wednesday night, shooting 58.3 percent and attempting only six 3-pointers in the second stanza.

Green Wave

Derrio Green has been on fire of late, especially against Top 25 opponents. Green scored another 26 points last night and is averaging 19 points per game against teams ranked in the Top 25. Green is also averaging 15.7 points per game since the conference season began and has dished out 17 assists over the last three games.

The Little Apple in Charlotte?

Anyone catch last Monday’s battle between #9 Kansas State and #1 Texas in the “Little Apple” in Manhattan, Kan.? Apparently someone in the Charlotte Athletic department did. The K-State faithful had large head cutouts of Head Coach Frank Martin and players Jacob Pullen and Jamar Samuels in the win over the nation’s top-ranked team. Wednesday night, I wasn’t surprised to see large head cutouts of Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz, forward Shamari Spears and point guard Dijuan Harris adorning the student section. For future reference, I think it’s a great idea and added a unique aspect to Niner Nation.

What a Hoot, Charlotte knocks off Owls at Halton

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.

Niners oust Spiders Tuesday night

The Charlotte 49ers women’s basketball team (12-8; 5-1 A-10) continued their roll through conference play Tuesday night with a 60-46 win over visiting Richmond (14-6; 3-2 A-10) in a rematch of last year’s Atlantic 10 Championship final.

Richmond was 3-1 in conference play coming into the game but were coming off a horrendous 83-31 road loss at the hands of conference rival Dayton in which the Spiders were held to just 16 points in the first half.

Charlotte had a stretch over the first five minutes of play where they couldn’t score and allowed the Spiders to go on a 9-0 scoring run and take the lead 11-3 with 13:38 remaining. Charlotte countered with a 6-0 run to close the gap and get back into the game.

After Charlotte’s counter-run, the game was back-and-forth for the rest of the first half and when Ashley Spriggs made a bank shot with just under 10 seconds left in the half, the game was tied at 26.

“Once again, I thought we really got off to a slow start, but I attribute a lot of that to Richmond,” Charlotte head coach Karen Aston said after the game. “We thought they would come in here ready to go, and they did. It took us some time to adjust with the way they were playing. I thought Kelsy (Mcadoo), Jennifer (Hailey), Jessica (Johnson) and Jaquaria (Forney) all gave us a lift in the first half when Shannon and Ashley got in foul trouble.”

Charlotte came out firing in the second half and outscored Richmond 14-4 to open up their lead to 40-30 with 13:35 remaining. Richmond came right back with a 9-0 run though, and made the score 40-39 with 8:47 remaining in the game.

After Brittani Shells tied the game at 46 on a 3-pointer, Shannon McCallum and the Niners took over. McCallum nailed a long-range three to put Charlotte up 49-46 with 4:33 left and after Shells’ tying 3-pointer with 5:28 left, Richmond didn’t score again. Charlotte closed the game on a sizzling 14-0 run to move to 8-1 on the season at Halton Arena and take sole possession of third place in the Atlantic 10 behind only Duquesne and Xavier.

“The older players really were the anchor in the second half,” Aston said of the second half surge. “I thought Shannon hit some really big shots and made a couple of really critical defensive plays but you can just tell that the upperclassmen had been in this environment before. They really are stepping up to the plate right now for our team.”

McCallum had a game-high 19 points for Charlotte to go along with 12 rebounds while Ashley Spriggs also notched a double-double, recording 15 points and 10 rebounds. Aysha Jones was the third double-digit scorer for Charlotte with 10 points and Erin Floyd added nine points and six rebounds

The Niners struggled rebounding the ball in the early-going and Head Coach Karen Aston was visibly upset, calling a timeout at one point to regroup her team. Apparently the message got through. The 49ers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds the rest of the way and outrebounded the Spiders by 10, 42-32. The Niners also used a plethora of high-percentage shots to oust Richmond. At halftime, the Niners had a 22-14 advantage in points in the paint and by the end of the game had built that advantage to 38-24.

“We do rebound the ball pretty well and I think teams come out of the gate thinking ‘we have to stop them from rebounding’,” Aston said of the rebounding effort. “I think though as the game goes along, they forget a little bit and they probably don’t sustain that pressure. We do typically get a little bit stronger on the boards in the second half just because we keep kind of doing what we’re doing.”

Shells had 15 points to lead Richmond, who after starting off 3-0 in Atlantic 10 play have dropped two straight. Katie Holzer added six points for the Spiders and Abby Oliver connected on all six of her free throws to add six points.

For the game, Charlotte shot 43.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc. Richmond on the other hand shot just 30.9 percent from the field and 21.4 percent from downtown. The only statistical advantage the Spiders held on the night was free throw percentage (75 percent to 55 percent), and bench points (14 to 4).

The win moves Charlotte to 5-1 in conference play on the season and extended the Niners’ winning streak to a season-high five games. The Niners return to the hardwood Saturday night for a primetime matchup with Saint Louis at Halton Arena.