Homegrown talent will be on display in Charlotte 49ers-App State men’s basketball game
The Charlotte 49ers’ defense grabbed much of the attention Monday night in the team’s rout of visiting S.C. State, but head basketball coach Ron Sanchez found joy in something else.
“You can see the progress in Brice Williams,” Sanchez said after his team walloped the Bulldogs 78-40. “He is still learning, but his ceiling is so high.”
The 49ers (1-2) are back in action Friday night, hosting Appalachian State (3-1) at 5 p.m. in Halton Arena.
Williams, coming off his best game as a 49er, is a Hopewell High product, but he won’t be the only Charlotte-area player who could play a big role in deciding this game.
The 49ers-Mountaineers’ contest will have a homegrown feel to it.
For starters, there’s Williams, a 6-7 sophomore guard who had 10 points and seven rebounds Monday night.
“He’s been putting in the work,” Sanchez says. “Because of that, his teammates believe in him.”
There’s also Jackson Threadgill, a 49er freshman from Davidson Day who scored 10 points against S.C. State. And guard Caleb Stone-Carrawell is one of the first players off the bench for Charlotte.
Appalachian State isn’t lacking for Queen City-area talent.
The team’s leading scorer is junior guard Adrian Delph, from Kings Mountain High. He is averaging 11.8 points a game. Sophomore guard Donovan Gregory, from Carmel Christian, is averaging 11.5 points. And C.J. Huntley, a freshman forward from Davidson Day, is scoring 8.5 points a contest in a reserve role.
Sanchez says his team remains a work in progress. But, he says, there definitely has been progress.
“We’re getting better,” he said. “We’re still not where we need to be, but we’re getting there.”
In Monday night’s game, the 49ers held S.C. State to 24.5 percent shooting from the floor.
Sanchez said his team’s defense and ball movement Monday night were good signs.
“I think they kind of inspired one another with how unselfish they were with the basketball,” he said.
Williams said: “We don’t even know how good we can be. We can defend, 1 through 5. And we’re working hard at getting better.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 6:19 PM.