Charlotte 49ers Edge Out a 55-49 Win Over The East Carolina Pirates

CHARLOTTE, NC – The Charlotte 49ers Men’s Basketball team defeated the East Carolina Pirates 55-49 in game that came down to the final seconds. 

49ers junior guard Jon Davis was the game’s leading scorer with 18 points. However, that didn’t seem like it would be the case early in the game. When Davis was subbed out with 12:28 left in the first half, he shot 1-5 (0-3 3FG) from the field with three turnovers and three points. 

“Me personally, looking at my line, I don’t think I played particularly well,” Davis said. ”I think, like (49ers head coach Ron Sanchez) said, I did some of the other things as good. I did have seven assists, but, that cancelled out with seven turnovers. I did have eight rebounds, missed a free throw, 2-11 from the 3 and 5-16 from the field so I shot the ball a lot. So, I’m not really too excited about the 18 points.” 

The 49ers took the lead from tipoff. Their first two baskets came from 3-point baskets. The first by freshman guard Malik Martin and the second by sophomore guard Jaylan McGill. However, sloppy play by the 49ers kept the Pirates within reach. 

After an emphatic dunk by junior transfer forward Seth LeDay for the Pirates with 8:21 left in the first half, a frustrated Sanchez burned a timeout with his team trailing 17-15. 

“I can’t recall but, what we’re trying to do is not allow us to become emotional and panicking in moments,” Sanchez said when asked about what was discussed in the time. We have to learn how to adjust to the flow of games. Teams make runs. Teams make mistakes. Players make mistakes…The purpose of the timeout was to calm us down and make sure that we continue to play the game the right way.” 

Out of the 8:21 timeout the 49ers changed their defense to a zone defense and went on a scoring run. During the scoring run the 49ers were able to extend their lead to seven points with 4:06 left in the game. Their largest lead of the game to that point. 

The Pirates went on a 2:16 scoring drought to end the first half and the 49ers were up 33-26 heading into halftime. 

At halftime LeDay was the game’s leading scorer with 12 points and Davis was the 49ers leading scorer with 11 points. Both teams were careless with the ball in the first half. The Pirates had 10 turnovers versus the 49ers eight. The difference between the game at halftime was the 49ers shot 4-10 (40%) from the 3-point line while the Pirates shot 1-5 (20%) from the 3-point line in the first half. 

“I think that some of (the turnovers) were just some looseness with ball,” Sanchez said when asked about his team’s 1-2 Assist-Turnover ratio in the first half. “For the team, as a whole, it’s in area that we have to continue to improve if we want to be competitive. We can’t give up the ball. But what (the Pirates) did do, they transitioned back defensively really well.” 

The Pirates came out of the half in a full-court press which sped up the 49ers backcourt. The Pirates tied the game up at 33 all with 17:47 left after a made hook shot by sophomore forward Dimitrije Spasojevic. However, Martin scored a layup on the other end to give the lead back to the 49ers. 

Both teams went into a shooting slump early in the second half. The 49ers had only made two layups, both by Martin, after the first 7:07 of the half. With 10:46 left in the game, the Pirates had missed eight of their last nine shots. 

Midway through the second half, Sanchez subbed into the game walk-on junior guard John Kitoko. 

“John Kitoko came in midway through the second half and gave us a really good spark,” Davis said. “…(Kitoko) came in, he knew what we were in, got a key boxout, came down got a layup.” 

Kitoko finished the game with a career-high of four points. 

“The thing is, when you look are our bench, let’s be honest, we’re not very deep,” Sanchez said when asked about the Kitoko substitution. “I told guys that ‘everyone is needed’ and that’s not lip service.” 

With 6:56 left in the game, Pirates sophomore guard Shawn Williams had 16 points after only having three points in the first half. The Pirates were able to cut the 49ers lead to five with 2:52 left in the game at 51-46.

A 3-pointer by Pirates senior guard Addison Hill cut the 49ers lead to 51-49 with 1:17 left in the game. LeDay for the Pirates missed a game-tying basket with eight seconds left and was forced to foul Davis with 06.4 seconds left in the game. 

Davis made both of his shots at the line and a hurried LeDay stepped on the out-of-bounds line while he was trying to inbound the ball. This gave the ball back to the 49ers with a 53-49 lead. 

The ball was inbounded to freshman guard Brandon Younger and the Pirates were forced to foul him. Younger made both of his free throws and the 49ers edged out a 55-49 win over the Pirates while making zero field goals in the last 5:06 of play.

What’s Next 

The Pirates (6-5) face North Carolina A&T on December 28 at home in their next matchup. 

The 49ers (3-5) face TCU on December 23 in their first matchup of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.