Following what happened Wednesday night, the 49ers had the challenge of attempting to rebound against the Atlantic 10′s flagship program, Xavier. Javarris Barnett had a career night, but it wasn’t enough as Charlotte (10-10, 2-5) came up short to Xavier (14-7, 5-3) and lost, 74-70.

Barnett got the game started with a three-pointer from the top of the key, but Charlotte’s next four shots were all missed threes. Xavier did not get off to a great start and some attempts from inside the paint earlier might have made a difference later. After a few minutes of back-and-forth scoring, the Musketeers were able to put some distance between themselves and Charlotte. Xavier found themselves up 30-20 with 3:44 remaining in the first-half. Charlotte then went on a 13-7 run, aided by three-point field goals from Barnett, DeMario Mayfield and Derrio Green. Two free throws from Terrence Williams got Charlotte within four at the break, trailing Xavier 33-37.

Charlotte came out of the break aggressive, and chipped away at Xavier’s lead slowly but surely. Barnett’s third three-pointer got Charlotte within one, 47-46, with 14:17 left in the contest. Minutes later he would tie the score on his fifth three-pointer, the score knotted at 52 all. Xavier answered as we all expected a team like Xavier to do. A three-pointer from Brad Redford broke the tie and began a 19-10 run by the Musketeers that would put Xavier on top 71-62 with 2:34 remaining.

With Xavier having just scored seven straight, the 49ers found the strength to make one last run, just like against Saint Louis two weeks earlier. Having gotten within three points on a Chris Braswell jumper, Xavier was able to burn 33 seconds off the clock before Tu Holloway bricked an attempted dagger. DeMario Mayfield was sent to the line with 12.8 seconds and after having made the first, the second rolled out of bounds, and in possession of Xavier. Holloway then got himself two daggers in the form of free throws getting the score to its final margin.

Beating Xavier is and always will be a a tough task, but after the disaster that happened against Temple the performance of the Niners was respectable. Had Pierria Henry been healthy he could have very well been the difference in the outcome. Henry not only brings his own defensive spark to the court, but the team reflects his intensity on defense. With him in the game, Redford doesn’t find himself wide open as easily as he did.

Barnett scored 27 points on 9-15 shooting, including a near perfect 7-8 from behind the arc. Without Barnett, the rest of the team shot 31%, we can’t expect Barnett to catch fire like that every night.  The guys on the court have to figure out how to make their shots. DeMario Mayfield got another double-double, 13 points and 10 rebounds. He made six of his eight free throw attempts and his improvement in this aspect of the game is appreciated. Braswell scored 12 points on 4/7 shooting, but the Niners will continue to lose games if he is only getting seven shots a game.

The A10 continues to play well in non-conference action with the league sporting a 19-10 for the week.  The Niners dropped a brutal road game to the Lamar Cardinals but their week wasn’t as bad as Rhode Island’s, who went out to the Midwest to receive a pair of losses from Texas and Nebraska.  Winless Rhody has three consecutive home games this week and should win at least two of them.  Cleveland State will be a tough out as Saint Bonaventure discovered.

Win of the Week – Saint Louis with a resounding victory over the Washington Huskies 77-64 at Chaifetz Arena.  The Billikens shot a blistering 52.8% from the field against the defending final Pac-10 champions.  Brian Conklin led the way with 25 points to lead both teams in scoring.  The undersized forward is having a terrific start to his Sr. season, doubling last season’s scoring average through the first three games.  Kwamain Mitchell, who missed all of last season, had his first good shooting game connecting on 7-13 shots to score 18 for SLU.

Dud of the Week – Charlotte getting drilled at Lamar 72-54.  The Niners were without Jr. F Chris Braswell, who was averaging a double-double in his first two games of the season, and it hurt mightily.  The Niners shot just 32.8% from the field and were out-rebounded by the Cardinals by a resounding 54-28 margin.

Game of the Week- Saint Bonaventure at Virginia Tech.  The Bonnies host Sienna tonight in what is sure to be a good game, but it’s the opportunity to roll into Blacksburg and secure a resume win against the Hokies that has us excited.  Saint Bonaventure needs to get more from the team and not be just the Andrew Nicholson show if they want to defeat Dorenzo Hudson-led Virginia Tech.  Other games that could produce quality OOC wins are Saint Louis and Xavier playing Boston College (Anaheim, CA) and Georgia (Cintas Center) respectively.

1. Xavier: 3-0

• Last Week: 11/16 - WIN 86-63 vs. IPFW, WIN 11/18 vs. Miami (Ohio) 66-60
• This Week: 11/25 vs. Georgia

2. Temple: 3-1

• Last Week: 11/14 - WIN 73-67 (OT) at Penn , 11/17 - WIN 69-55 vs. Western Michigan, 11/18 – LOSS 85-77 vs. Purdue, 11/20 – WIN 78-74 (OT) vs. Wichita State
• This Week: 11/27 at Bowling Green

3. Saint Louis: 3-0

• Last Week: 11/15 - WIN 61-42 at Southern Illinois, 11/20 - WIN 77-64 vs. Washington 
• Next Week: 11/24 vs. Boston College

4. St. Bonaventure: 1-1

• Last Week: 11/18 – LOSS 67-64 at Cleveland State
• This Week: 11/21 at Sienna, 11/27 at Virginia Tech

5. George Washington 1-1

• Last Week: Idle
• This Week: 11/21 vs. Detroit, 11/22 vs. Austin Peay, 11/23 at Bowling Green

6. Saint Joseph’s: 3-1

• Last Week: 11/17 - WIN 66-53 vs. Georgia Tech, 11/18 – LOSS 78-70 vs. Seton Hall, 11/20 – WIN 79-75 vs. Tulsa
• This Week: 11/23 at Iona, 11/26 vs. Pedo State

7. Charlotte: 2-1

• Last Week: 11/15 - WIN 77-75 (2OT) at Central Michigan, 11/19 – LOSS 72-54 at Lamar
• This Week: 11/22 vs. East Tennessee State, 11/26 @ Wright State

8. Richmond: 3-1

• Last Week: 11/14 – LOSS 74-61 at Davidson, 11/17 – WIN 72-51 vs. Hampton, 11/19 – WIN 83-58 vs. Sacred Heart
• This Week: 11/22 vs. Illinois

9. Duquesne: 3-2

• Last week: 11/18 – WIN 97-81 vs. District of Columbia, 11/19 – WIN 81-76 vs. Akron, 11/20 – LOSS 84-68 vs. Valparaiso
• This week: 11/26 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

9. Rhode Island: 0-3

• Last Week: 11/15 - LOSS 100-90 at Texas, 11/20 – LOSS 83-63 at Nebraska
• This Week: 11/25 vs. Hofsta, 11/26 vs. Boston University, 11/27 vs. Cleveland State

11. Dayton 2-1

• Last Week: 11/15 – LOSS 72-67 at Miami (Ohio), 11/19 – WIN 74-49 vs. UNCW
• This Week: 11/24 vs. Weak Forest

12. Massachusetts 3-0

• Last Week: 11/14 – WIN 83-67 vs. Northeastern, 11/17 - WIN 83-67 vs. NJIT
• This Week: 11/21 at Boston College, 11/24 vs. Florida State

13. La Salle 2-1

• Last Week: 11/15 – LOSS 76-69 at Villanova, 11/18 – WIN 92-83 vs. James Madison
• This Week: 11/22 at Pittsburgh, 11/25 vs. Robert Morris, 11/26 vs. Rider

14. Fordham 1-1

• Last Week: 11/18 – WIN 64-49 vs. Binghamton
• This Week: 11/26 at Loyola (IL)

Over the past summer Niner fans everywhere followed the recruitment of Willie Clayton and Shawn Lester closely. Of course, for us at GTG, that meant keeping track of every recruiting blog on the net looking for new information to share with you. One blog that stood out for Atlantic 10 recruiting news in general was Heard This Blog, which considers itself “Your Atlantic 10 Basketball Connection.”

Heard This Blog was founded by Ben Weixlmann, who, in addition to having a ridiculously cool last name, has been writing about sports since he was in high school. He’s since gone on to write for BillikenReport.com and has managed to position himself as a go-to for Atlantic 10 recruiting news.

In the spirit of intra-conference collaboration (and of course, sharing hits), we caught up with Ben and asked him a few questions about recruiting, the Atlantic 10 and gave him a chance to hate on Dayton.

Heard This Blog: Ha! I really do enjoy covering the Atlantic 10.  In my opinion, the A-10 is the best non-BCS basketball conference out there.  Many folks already cover the more well-known conferences, and thus I feel as though I can create a niche following by solely following the Atlantic 10.  As you well know, a lot of the fanbases within the conference are just as rabid as BCS schools, and so it makes for a lot of engaging conversations.

GTG: You’ve made it a priority so far to cover recruiting in this conference. What types of opinions do high school prospects have about the Atlantic 10? Are most of them weighing the conference in the decision, or is it strictly based on the merits of the individual schools?

HTB: This is a very interesting question.  The answer to this question ranges the entire spectrum.  Some recruits I have spoken to are very knowledgeable about the league, and some honestly don’t know anything about it.  I would say it’s 50/50 regarding conference and individual schools.  Many of the top-level recruits in the league simply know the individual school that is recruiting them.  Some East Coast prospects I have spoken to are being recruited by many of the A-10 schools and therefore have a greater understanding of the conference as a whole.

GTG: Related to that, how do you rank the 2012 classes in the Atlantic 10 so far?

HTB: Just as one would expect, it’s Xavier and then a sizable drop from there. The Musketeers have a Top 25 recruiting class nationally for ’12.  I’d argue it’s even closer to Top 15.  Semaj Christon and Jalen Reynolds are both players that will have instant impacts in the Atlantic 10.  I saw Christon play this past summer, and he’s the real deal.  His height, athleticism, and skill set are incredibly advanced.  From there, it’s tough to say.  Dayton has Jevon Thomas and Jalen Robinson.  Both are big-time talents.  Temple, Charlotte, and Duquesne all have two members in their 2012 classes.  It’s just really difficult to grade them out without having a more full understanding.  We’ll know a lot more here in a couple of months.  Xavier is the only one of the bunch that has a full 2012 class.

That one felt good.

“Halton Arena is an amazing place.”

After four straight defeats the Niners(10-12, 2-6) notched a hard-fought 66-62 victory over the Xavier Musketeers, who lost for the first time in league play and dropped to 15-6 overall and 7-1 in A10 play.

Certainly in the early-going it didn’t seem like the Niners would be celebrating, as Xavier jumped out to an early 12-point lead with a series of dunks by Jamel McLean.  It was a case of poor boxing out and missed assignments, but the Niners eventually settled down and started to chip away at the Xavier lead.  It was evident once the Niners resisted the early flurry by Xavier that they were going to match the Musketeers’ intensity, and it paid off as the Niners managed a tenuous 29-27 lead at halftime.

The second half featured a series of runs, first by the Niners as they built a 37-31 lead a pair of threes by Javarris Barnett and Derrio Green.  Xavier would respond with a run of their own, keyed by Tu Holloway and Mark Lyons, who seemed quite agitated at the crowd, to take a 43-39 point lead at the under-12 minute media timeout.

Coming out of the break, the Niners would 13-0 run that was capped by Gokhan Sirin’s 3 point basket with just under 8 minutes to play.  Throughout the run, the tough Niners 2-3 zone kept Xavier from finding easy buckets underneath and as mentioned before, the X guards simply couldn’t find the range from outside -Tu Holloway was 0-8 from beyond the 3-point arc, and the Musketeers as a team shot just 3-20 from outside (15%).

Despite the lead and the momentum, however, Xavier had one last run in them.  In fact, Sirin’s 3 pointer was the last FG of the game for the Niners, who won despite the nearly 8 minute stretch without a bucket.  The difference in the game ultimately came at the foul line where the Niners consistently converted, in stark contrast to the gut-wrenching performance late in the game Saturday against the LaFemme Explorers.

Derrio in particular was outstanding, finishing the game 10-10 from the free throw line.  Two of the biggest came on a strange stretch where Chris Braswell was assessed a technical foul that resulted

in his disqualification for an errant elbow; however, the refs did not immediately realize this and allowed him to shoot two foul shots, both misses.  An awkward pause followed by an announcement that the FTAs did not count due to the 5th personal foul led to the FTAs being shot yet again, this time with Derrio Green calmly making both.

Charles Dewhurst also had a pair of clutch makes down the stretch and played perhaps his bestgame since his sophomore season despite scoring only 4 points.  His 6 rebounds, 2 steals and a block were the kind of ‘glue’ plays that helped hold a fragile lead together down the stretch.

“Really proud of the guys effort, everybody chipped in, if you look at the statsheet, everybody that played made a huge play of some sort someway somehow.” said Coach Major, who notched his 10th win of his tenure with Charlotte, also adding, “Dewhurst big free throws, Gokhan comes in- big 3, Javarris Barnett, a huge loose ball guy. That was a classic team effort, but ultimately we want that to be what we are, “Don’t play big because Xavier’s here ,play big because Charlotte’s playing.’”

Statistically the Niners had 3 players scoring in double figures; Chris Braswell, Derrio Green and Javarris Barnett.  Braswell made better decisions with the ball tonight, despite the always unpopular deep jumper, and was able to drive the ball consistently against the Xavier interior.  Despite the fouls and the elbow -PS I hate that rule, it punishes teams for rebounds close to the basket, he played perhaps his best game since early in the non-conference.  It was good to see the Chris Braswell of last year re-emerge after a tough stretch.  Here’s to more of that!

“I didn’t really know what was going on, Chris missed the free throws and they were like, I get to shoot, so I was kind of happy,” added Derrio Green about the bizarre late game situation.

Javarris again hit a couple of nice threes, but his best offensive play of the night was a nifty take-away of a Xavier rebound followed by a layup.  Those are the types of plays that any fan loves to see, all hustle and attitude.

That’s something to love about this team.  They have the hustle and the heart.  The execution isn’t always there and depth will remain a problem, but these guys have no quit.  Maybe fans could obsess about wins and losses or what could have been, but for this bad fan, satisfaction comes from watching the players grow as individuals and as a team.  Oh, and they can get a scalp or three along the way.  Let’s keep it up and get another one on homecoming Saturday against the loathsome George Washington Colonials and their Ewok-looking coach, Karl Hobbs.

Charlotte49ers.com Recap
Box Score(.pdf)
AP Recap(via ESPN, also a phot gallery)
Dana & Victory Recap

Seriously, WTF is this?!

So, the Niners kicked off conference play in style a few days ago, winning a real barn-burner against St. Bonaventure. Cue sarcasm.

That being said, our 49ers (11-4, 1-0) roll up to Ohio tonight to take on the Xavier Musketeers (10-5, 2-0) in the Cintas Center.  Cintas has historically been a pretty difficult place for Charlotte to do well.  It’s a pretty tough place to go in and get a win in general.  We are really gonna have to bring in our A-Game tonight if we expect to come out 2-0 in conference play…especially after bringing our C+ game at home against the Bonnies.

Xavier seems to be having some of the same issues this year that we are, coming out in some games firing on all cylinders ( see Xavier vs. Cincinnatti, Dec. 14)…and other games, looking like they just haven’t quite got it figured out (like in their loss to Marquette, or their abysmal first half performance against George Washington).  Nonetheless, while Xavier isn’t necessarily as talented this year as in years past, they’re still going to be a very tough opponent.  Moreover, as mentioned before, they always seem to put on a little extra shine at home.Also, our defense is gonna have its hands full with X guard (and Indiana transfer) Jordan Crawford (19 ppg).  The kid takes a lot of shots, but he’s got that ability to take a game over when he finds his stroke.  This season, after not playing last year, he seems to have found it just fine.  He’s been in double figures in all but one game.

On paper though, Charlotte and Xavier seem to match up pretty well.  I could see this being a close game and a very fun one to watch, and I could also see it getting very ugly for Charlotte…depending on which Charlotte team shows up.  In the past few games, it seems that we’re starting to develop a nasty habit of coming out terribly flat in the first half, turning it on in the second just long enough to make it close, and then kind of fizzling out.  That just won’t do against Xavier.  The 49ers are due a solid, resume-boosting win.  Let’s hope that we go up there and take care of business. 

Predictions are below. Leave yours in the comments. No seriously, we have a prize this time…SERIOUSLY…

D-Fo – Charlotte finally brings EVERYONE to play, and the 49ers scrap out a tough on in the Cintas Center.  76-71 Charlotte.

J Felt – Charlotte 71, Xavier 67. The 49ers shock the Atlantic10 (and their own fans) by collectively growing a pair and winning a close game at a tough opponent, but I am known to be highly illogical.

letsgoNINERS11 – Its not gonna happen in Cintas Center, building is near impossible to win in.  Xavier 79 – Charlotte 67

JRitchie – With the battle for playing time significantly diminished, the Niners finally get some chemistry and bid goodbye to Shamarr. The team that was dominating Louisville comes back on the court Charlotte 65 – Xavier 60 

Bust – I lost my glasses somewhere between Norfolk, VA and Knoxville, TN. No way we win this.
Xavier 82, Charlotte 64