FIU snaps Charlotte 49ers’ 9-game home winning streak with 67-52 victory
The Charlotte 49ers got a hard lesson Sunday on what it’s like to play meaningful basketball in March.
“My message to them was, ‘Can you handle this?’ ” coach Ron Sanchez said after the 49ers’ 67-52 Conference USA loss against Florida International in Halton Arena. “Because if you can’t, you’re in the wrong business.
“My second message was that we’re very fortunate to be in this position to be playing for something. So you have to embrace that. You genuinely have to chase after it with tremendous perseverance. It won’t be gifted to you.”
After two seasons of not even qualifying for the C-USA tournament, the 49ers (15-12, 9-7 C-USA) could have clinched a first-round bye in next week’s league tournament with a victory against the Panthers (18-11, 9-7), who they’re now tied with for fourth. Playing in the top group of C-USA’s “bonus play,” Charlotte is already ensured of a top-five seed.
But the 49ers, who had won nine consecutive home games, fell flat against FIU, which stifled Charlotte with game-long full-court pressure. Charlotte, which got 14 points from freshman guard Jahmir Young, made only 35.3 percent of its shots from the floor, including 2-of-16 from 3-point range.
And Osasumwen Osaghae, the Panthers’ 6-foot-9, senior forward, had his way in the paint, scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. FIU outrebounded the 49ers 33-26 and came up with 21 second-chance points.
The key stretch of the game came early in the second half, when FIU outscored Charlotte 24-5, boosting a 32-30 halftime lead to 56-35 with 9 minutes, 43 seconds left.
“We can have scoring droughts like that, but we took our foot off the gas with the non-obvious things,” Sanchez said. “We gave them 21 second-chance points. That’s not natural to us, not the way we play. I don’t know if we lost our rhythm or what, but we looked a little disjointed.”
The 49ers had been riding the crest of a long home-winning streak and could have broken the Halton Arena single-season record of 12 overall with a victory Sunday. The last time Charlotte lost at home was Dec. 3 against UNC Asheville. Included in the home winning streak was a convincing 75-49 victory against FIU in late January.
“We did a pretty good job the first time we played them,” Sanchez said. “But you can’t not show up just because you had it once. That’s maybe the place where this team is, having to learn from these experiences.”
Some of that loss of rhythm might be attributed to the bonus-play schedule, which has seen the 49ers play just three times over 15 days. Now — including Sunday and moving to the other extreme — Charlotte finishes the regular season with three games in six days. The 49ers face North Texas (which clinched C-USA’s regular-season title on Sunday with an overtime victory against Western Kentucky) on Wednesday, then travel to Louisiana Tech on Saturday.
“You definitely get in a rhythm (throughout the regular season), playing Thursdays and Saturdays,” Sanchez said. “Then you get to Sunday and Saturdays. You want some rest, so that’s good, but you’ve developed your rhythm. I’m not making excuses. We didn’t play well today, and we’ve got to own that. We’ve still got to show up.”
And it was those non-obvious things — which Sanchez brings up regularly — that hurt the 49ers most against FIU.
“You can talk about rhythm all you want,” he said. “But there’s no rhythm to blocking out or diving on the floor. Doing the things that are game-winning.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 3:58 PM.