Wilderness provided the heroics with the game winner against La Salle.
Well that was pretty much the definition of awesome. D-Fo had his birthday wish delivered in the form of a game-winning runner delivered by the hands of An’Juan Wilderness as time expired at Tom Gola Arena. The basket broke a 82-82 tie with the La Salle Explorers and gave the Niners another impressive road victory as they try to keep place with Xavier and Temple at the top of the A10 standings. The win sets up a battle for first place Wednesday against #16 Temple in Halton Arena (7PM tip. If you don’t have tickets yet I’m gonna hunt you down).
Coming out of the opening tip, the Niners pulled out to an early 8 point lead thanks in large part to the hot shooting of Derrio Green. Green scored 9 straight points for the Niners on three 3-point baskets and layups by Chris Braswell and An’Juan Wilderness put Charlotte ahead 15-7. La Salle would battle back with impressive shooting for long range of their own thanks to sensational Fr. C Aaric Murray. Murray, despite the offensive explosion in the first half, would be limited in action for much of the game due to foul problems, which exacerbated an already thin bench for the Explorers thanks to injuries to Ruben Guillandeaux and Kimmani Barrett, the latter finding out he will likely miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his right foot.
The Niners would again build a first half lead, this time going to the inside game. Shamari Spears, and in particular, Braswell scored often against the big La Salle frontcourt. Braswell did his damage both on the floor and at the line, finish the game with another double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds and a very impressive 9-9 at the foul line). The Explorers would again make a run to tighten the game at the half thanks to Yves Mekongo and Jerrell Williams, who found themselves frequently converting at the foul line in the latter minutes of the first half. When the buzzer sounded to send the game to halftime, the Niners held a small 48-46 advantage.
The second half featured more of the same: the Niners building leads and the Explorers battling back. The lead grew to as many as 11 points for the Niners, and they maintained a 5 point lead with just 2:03 remaining before the La Salle would make one last run. A pair of Rodney Green free throws and a Yves Mekongo 3 pointer tied the game at 82 points apiece with just under a minute remaining. A missed Derrio Green shot left the ball in La Salle’s hands with a chance to win and 25 seconds to work with -basically they could run the clock down and either win it or send it to overtime.
Not so fast. An’Juan Wilderness played tough defense on Rodney Green on a pick and roll with Aaric Murray, causing Green to opt to pass to Murray who was cutting to the basket with possibly a dunk or layup to win it. The pass however sailed off Murray’s fingers out-of-bounds giving the Niners one last chance with a little less than 5 seconds remaining. The 49ers immediately inbounded the ball to An’Juan Wilderness who covered about three-quarters of the court an managed to get off a runner as time expired which found the bottom of the net, giving the Niners the stunning last second victory. It was the 2nd win in 3 games that game on the last possession for the Niners who suddenly find themselves in the unfamiliar role of road warrior in A10 conference play.
The starters again shined for the Niners as they were responsible for 81 of the 84 points scored. The lone bench points came from an Ian Andersen first half 3-pointer. Leading the scoring charge for Charlotte was Shamari “Sherman” Spears who finished with 22 points on 7-12 shooting and 8-11 from the foul line. Derrio Green was the third Niner to reach 20 points for the game, managing exactly that number on 6-14 shooting. Derrio had another good game distributing the ball and leading the team with 7 assists on the game to go with just 1 turnover. The provider of the last-second heroics, An’Juan Wilderness, also had a terrific game with 13 points on 6-7 shooting and adding 4 assists and 3 rebounds. DiJuan Harris didn’t have his best game, fouling out in 33 minutes of action with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists to go with 3 turnovers. Credit Rodney Green for being a difficult matchup all game for Harris.
Despite being outrebounded by La Salle, the margin was not particularly bad. Finishing just boards behind the Explorers, the Niners managed 11 offensive rebounds including 6 by Braswell. Impressively, Charlotte handed out 23 assists on 27 made baskets as again the Niners did a fantastic job moving the ball on offense, including in transition. Who is this team? What have they done with my Niners of old??? Actually, don’t answer that question. I just want to enjoy this.
In the end, the difference in the game was foul shooting by the Niners. Most, if not all previous Niner teams under Lutz would have lost this game, but Charlotte coverted 23 of 28 foul shots, good for an 82.1% mark. In contrast, La Salle only hit 16 of 23, which was good for 69.6%.
Next up, a first place tumble with the very tough and very well-coached Temple Owls. Here’s to hoping we fill Halton Arena on Wednesday to give Fran Dunphy a not-so-warm welcome to the QC. The average sports fan needs to know how good the Niners, Owls, and A10 are so be sure to get the word out! See you on the 27th.
There was one casualty for the Niners tonight. Charles Dewhurst went down late in the 2nd half with a leg injury. No would yet from the team what the extent of it is, but rumors are an ankle injury. We’ll update you when we get word on the extent of his injury.