In a match where the Charlotte 49ers (3-9) were nine point favorites, no game has come easy for Charlotte and they knew they had their hands full with the unorthodox defensive scheme of the Citadel Bulldogs (7-6).
“The Citadel are difficult to prepare for because they play different than anybody else,” said head coach Mark Price. “They press for 40 minutes. I think if a team does it for 40 minutes, it can wear on you.” And the Bulldogs showed just that to all 4,026 fans in attendance in Halton Arena just after the tip.
The 49ers struck early with excellent guard play from Jon Davis, Braxton Ogbueze, and Andrien White to help break the full court pressure from the Bulldogs and find the open man under the hoop. After a quick bucket under the basket for senior center Joseph Uchebo, Andrien White seemed to be the hot hand to feed early in the first half for Charlotte.
White quickly made his presence known after getting one of his five steals in the second minute of action, which led to a wide open layup to get him in the scoring column. Wasting no time, White added six more points, knocking down a transition three, a free throw, and a layup to put the 49ers up 10-4.
After letting the Citadel stick around in the game for the first fifteen minutes of the game, Charlotte went on a 10-0 run with the help from some smooth shooting and hard baseline drives by the freshman Curran Scott. Scott finished the game with 20 points, his second game scoring 20 or more this season. The 49ers lead 49-43 going into halftime, looking like they were easily going to break their season high 82 points against Appalachian State a couple weeks before.
“We have definitely been hitting our stride over the last couple games. We are starting to come together as a unit,” said Scott.
Sharing the ball was definitely the highlight on the night for the 49ers as they displayed unselfish basketball to break the tiring full court pressure displayed the entire game from the Citadel.
“Offensively, we have been trying to share the ball and get everyone touches. Everybody did a great job and contributed to this win. If we keep playing like that and sharing the ball, we can win and put some numbers up like tonight,” said White.
Throughout the entire second half, the Bulldogs continued to press, and Charlotte continued to share and score; a lot.
Walk-on senior Cameron Pappas started the second half scoring for the 49ers with a couple free throws, adding to his career high seven points.
The only other senior who got into the scoring column was Uchebo. The 6-foot-10 transfer from Pittsburgh made things a little easier for coach Price, who had big men Bernard Sullivan and Reid Aube out of the game due to injuries. Uchebo benefited from the full court pressure applied all game from the Bulldogs, receiving long passes from Davis (17 points, six assists) and Ogbueze all game, with easy flushes under the rim. Uchebo finished the night with a season high 19 points and his second best rebounding performance, with 15.
With a quick press conference after the game, the 49ers coach Price looked happy about the win over a tough Bulldogs team, but meant business when talking about Charlotte’s upcoming Conference USA matchup between Old Dominion saying, “We are getting ready for conference play coming up. The grind starts.”