Charlotte 49ers come within 3 seconds and one shot of snapping their losing streak

Three seconds were all that separated the Charlotte 49ers from the end of their long losing streak Saturday night.

But in the end, it was another narrow loss, this time by a 97-89 count in overtime to Texas-San Antonio at Halton Arena.

The setback came two nights after UTEP scored with two seconds remaining and beat the 49ers 87-86.

This time, Charlotte appeared to be within reach of winning for the first time in 13 games when guard Andrien White scored on a layup and a free throw for an 84-82 led with 10 seconds remaining.

“We knew we had to watch their freshman at the end,” 49ers’ interim coach Houston Fancher said, referring to Roadrunners’ standout guard Jhivvan Jackson. “But he made a big shot.”

Jackson’s 10-foot jump shot with 2.9 seconds remaining tied the game at 84, and after Charlotte’s Jon Davis missed a long 3-pointer, the game headed to overtime.

And the extra five minutes were dominated by the Roadrunners (15-12, 8-6 Conference USA), who outscored Charlotte (5-20, 1-13) 13-5.

White was superb down the stretch in regulation, scoring Charlotte’s final seven points. Davis added 19, but Fancher said the 49ers ultimately fell victim to shaky defense.

“We didn’t defend well,” he said. “We gave up a lot of layups. We didn’t do a good job of containing the ball.”

The Roadrunners led by as much as nine points in the first half and were up 41-34 at the half. But the 49ers narrowed the gap to 45-42 early in the second half, and the game remained close the rest of the way.

3 who mattered

Jhivan Jackson (Texas-San Antonio): Jackson, a freshman guard from Puerto Rico, scored a game-high 30 points, including the big basket that sent the game into overtime.

Andrien White (Charlotte): He scored the 49ers’ final seven points in regulation, responding several times after the Roadrunners had taken a lead. White finished with 25 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Luka Vasic (Charlotte): The 49ers had a freshman standout, too, as Vasic scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

Observations

▪  Texas-San Antonio had a big shooting night, hitting 58 percent from the floor and making 52 percent (13-of-25) of its 3-pointers. Charlotte shot 45 percent from the floor and 32 percent from 3-point range.

▪  Davis didn’t have his best shooting night (7-of-20), but he had eight assists and a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He also added six rebounds.

▪  Another 49er freshman, reserve Milos Supica, had one of his better games of the season, with eight points and six rebounds.

Worth mentioning

▪  Roadrunners’ head coach Steve Henson is not a total stranger to Charlotte. He played briefly with the Charlotte Hornets in the 1993-94 season.

▪  Texas-San Antonio looks like a team to be reckoned with in the future. The Roadrunners start a freshman, three sophomores and a junior, and their sixth man is a freshman. Starter Jhivan Jackson is a six-time Conference USA Freshman of the Week this season, and sixth man Keaton Wallace has won the honor three times.

▪  The 49ers might be playing to avoid a school-record losing streak when they return home March 1 against Florida International. They have lost 12 straight and will be underdogs next week against C-USA powers Western Kentucky (Thursday) and Marshall (Saturday). The record is 14 games, set by the 1984-85 team that finished 5-23.

This story was originally published February 17, 2018 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Charlotte 49ers come within 3 seconds and one shot of snapping their losing streak."