Alan Major’s first season as Head Coach of the Charlotte 49ers was certainly an adventure.  Early injuries to KJ Sherrill and Charles Dewhurst, poor chemistry with Shamari Spears and the eventual loss of Phil Jones to grades all contributed to an abysmal 10-20 season.  However, the Niners did manage dramatic victories against Tennessee and later, Xavier.

That said, tonight’s 84-61 victory over Davidson was in our opinion Alan Major’s first signature victory.  It was a rivalry game against a solid albeit not spectacular Wildcat team in which the Niners won by playing up to their talent level and ability, not playing down to the other team’s level.  This was a game many Niner fans were fearing, Vegas and the simulators expecting the Niners to lose and a game Davidson was confident they would win.

In the early going, neither team looked interested in winning.  Charlotte was able to force Davidson into turnovers; however, poor shots and turnovers of their own saw Charlotte up only 6-2 following a DeMario Mayfield layup with the game 5 minutes old.

The remainer of the half featured brief breakouts by the Niners followed by Davidson closing the gap again.  A Nik Cochran 3-pointer late in the half would give Davidson a 31-30 lead; however the feeling was one that the Niners should be leading the game by a comfortable margin.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Niners ratcheted up the defensive intensity.  Those openings JP Kuhlman found in the first half were closing, as the Niners realized he could not create his own shot effectively.  De’Mon Brooks continued to struggle with fouls (a key strategic victory for Charlotte) and Jake Cohen was largely ineffective.  A critical juncture came roughly five minutes into the 2nd half with the Niners holding a precarious 39-34 lead.  Javarris Barnett (15 points, 6 rebounds) drilled a 3 pointer to extend the lead to 8 points.  A 3 pointer by Davidson’s Chris Czklsj;alekarusoiapfjlk (we’re Charlotte, we can’t speel) the other way was met immediately by another Javarris Barnett long-ball, keeping the lead at 8 points.  Two more JB triples and one by Luka Voncina capped a terrific display of shooting for the Niners as they withstood any semblance of a Davidson run.

From there, Chris Braswell took over, finishing regularly at the rim with a dazzling array of layups following deftly-maneuvered drives around Davidson post players.  Braswell finished the game with yet another double-double: 19 points and 10 rebounds.  Davidson appeared to cave in the latter stages, something few Niner teams have been able to induce on the opposition over the last half decade.  To really illustrate how bad the rout was, Charlotte shot 69% from the field in the 2nd half, missing just two shots inside the arc and 50% from long range.

Impressive outings were also had by the freshman trio of Pierria’ Henry (10 points on 3-6 shooting, 2 steals), E Victor Nickerson (10 points on 3-4 shooting) and Terrence Williams (5 points including some nice drives to the rim).  Though Henry was only credited with 2 steals, he wrecked havoc on the Davidson backcourt and knocked loose a lot of balls that wound up being credited to other Niners (Derrio Green had 6 steals).

One of the bonus silver linings from the game was that the Niners were able to win despite quiet scoring nights from Derrio Green and Deuce Briscoe.  That’s not to say they played poorly… they didn’t, it was merely a case where Henry, Nickerson and Williams were able to provide some more scoring than usual as well as Javarris Barnett providing the necessary outside marksmanship.  These developments are another indicator that the Freshman are beginning to improve, develop and better integrate with the rest of the lineup.  Though bumps in the road may still happen, things are certainly looking up for the Charlotte 49ers.