That’s more like it. Tonight the Niners got their first “true” road win against Hofstra 80-72. I threw true in quotation marks because of the whopping 783 attendance tonight. That’s not a typo either. But consider the Mack Sports Complex was a house of horrors and the Niners lacking any sort of statement victory in this young season where we still have more questions than answers, it was a very welcome relief.
Shamari is a baaaaaaad man. Photo courtesy of William Roberston.
The Niner effort was propelled by another sensational performance by junior pit-bull Shamari Spears, who led all scorers with 26 points on 9-13 shooting and added 4 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Spears really did a little of everything on the offensive end, displaying a nice step-back three pointer from the baseline in the first half, a consistent turn-around jumpshot, and strong interior drives in traffic with the finish at the rim. To say that Spears is the best post player since Demarco Johnson is increasingly becoming a statement of the obvious with each successive game.
Hofstra led the contest in the half 41-39 mostly as a consequence of lax Charlotte defense, hitting 5-10 from behind the arc. In the second half, the Niner defense did improve as more shots were contested and fewer fell for the Pride, who shot 2-15 from the 3 and 12-38 overall in the 2nd half as Charlotte rallied to the victory. A major key to victory for the Niners was the persistence with the inside game. Hofstra defenders resorted to committing fouls as they have all season long, sending the men in green to the line 25 times in the second half compared to only 7 for Hofstra. Wing forwards Charles Dewhurst and RaShad Coleman did an excellent job cleaning up misses and preventing opportunities for Hofstra late in the game and solid, but not spectacular foul shooting helped preserve the win.
Ready for the blackout against ECU
Overall, Charlotte had another solid night shooting the ball overall, despite only 27.3% from 3 point land. Spears and frosh forward Chris Braswell,who recorded his second
double-double in his young career, scored around the basket and got to the foul line seemingly at will against the Hofstra man-to-man defense. It came as a surprise that Hofstra didn’t attempt to play more zone to limit opportunities for the Niner big men and force our “marksmen” to beat them from the perimeter. Hofstra did occasionally double-team Spears with some success but this was not a large part of the Pride strategy. Joining the Niners forwards in double figure scoring was sophomore guard Derrio Green, who despite scoring 12 points struggled a bit with his shot, particularly in the 2nd half. For Hofstra, Charles Jenkins and Greg Washington stood out. The former scored 25 points on 8-16 shooting and Washington contributed 18 points and 9 rebounds.
The Niners will be off until a December 2nd contest against the Pirates of ECU. Plenty of tickets will be available for any ninjas that want to see their arch enemies fall at the hands of the Niners. – NLP