 "Photo: Jackson Sveen")
In a hard fought game Saturday night, the Charlotte 49ers came out on top against St. Bonaventure, 57-54.
It was Charlotte’s first home game since losing to Tennessee last week and the first conference game of the season.
Charlotte (11-4; 1-0) opened strong, leading St. Bonaventure (7-8; 0-2) 21-9 early in the game. Before the end of the first half, St. Bonaventure responded with nine straight points and had cut Charlotte’s lead to four points, 26-22.
Dijuan Harris was injured about three minutes into the second half. After the Bonnies had taken the lead 29-28 on Ogo Adegboye’s second 3-pointer, Harris drove the ball down the left lane. Harris was fouled hard by Adegboye and his head slammed against the Halton Arena floor. With a bloody left eye, he left the court and received five stitches on his brow. After the game Harris commented, “I’m ok, I guess. I’ve got a huge headache right now, but that’s about it.”
With Harris in the locker room, Derrio Green took over the point and scored six straight points to give the Niners a 34-29 lead
While Harris was out, Charlotte head coach, Bobby Lutz, said that “Derrio handled the point fine.”
Harris returned strong. With Charlotte four points down, the senior sparked Charlotte to a 12-2 run to give the Niners a 52-45 lead with four minutes remaining. Harris also recorded his 400th career assist by the end of the game.
Charlotte was up by one, with seven seconds left on the clock. St. Bonaventure passed the ball to Jonathan Hall, who raced upcourt, however, Chris Braswell was in the way. The freshman planted his feet and took the charge, giving the ball back to Charlotte with three seconds left.
After a foul on the Bonnies’ Marquise Simmons, Charles Dewhurst drained two free throws to seal the win for Charlotte.
“I was really proud of our guys for making good plays,” Lutz said of his team’s effort. “We tried to be aggressive. The game was physical, but we hung in there.”
St. Bonaventure fans made their presence known at Saturday’s game, filling section 227. A few St. Bonaventure fans attempted to sit in the lower bowl, but were relentlessly heckled by Niner fans and forced to move. When forced to move, one of the St. Bonaventure fans made an obscene gesture towards the student section. St. Bonaventure head coach, Mark Schmidt, said, “We’ve got a great alumni base down here. We’ve got great fans.”
With the win, Charlotte equaled their win total for the entire 2008-09 season (11) and will now move into the meat of their schedule with three of their next four conference games coming on the road.
1 comments
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