Charlotte 49ers open basketball season with resounding 17-point win over Maine

Like mother, like son.

Nik Graves, a second-generation 49er, made the most of his first career start in Charlotte’s season-opening 69-52 victory over Maine, scoring 15 points on 100% shooting from the field.

One of three 49ers to total double-digit points, Graves led the way in interim head coach Aaron Fearne’s first win of the 2023-24 campaign. With opening-night jitters present, Fearne and the 49ers led wire to wire, shooting 53.4% from the field as a team and utilizing their new and improved size to dominate the glass.

Graves served as the team’s primary ball-handler for much of the game, which was a profound change following his true freshman season, where he scored a total of 36 points and was primarily the third or fourth guard off of the bench.

Fearne was impressed with Graves’ off-season work heading into his sophomore season, and it paid off Monday night.

“He’s put in a lot of work. We talk about it all the time — trust your work. You can’t cheat the game. You have got to put in major work, and (Nik) has done a lot of that,” Fearne said. “You’re rewarded for that, and obviously, that needs to continue. It’s good to see an individual like Nik get rewarded for the work he’s put in, but for the team too.”

Graves is the son of former Charlotte women’s basketball standout Nikki Graves, who accumulated more than 1,000 points in her four years in the Queen City (1996-1999). It was a surreal moment for the Durham native, but Graves is focused on paving his own legacy inside Halton Arena.

“It’s special, the legacy that my mom left behind. It’s obviously special,” Graves said. “But at the end of the day, it’s my mark to leave at the same time. Just having that legacy but leaving my own mark.”

The 6-foot-3 guard connected on all five of his shots, including two 3-pointers and a career-high five rebounds in 24 minutes of action. While Charlotte didn’t necessarily deal with adversity on the court, possessing a double-digit lead for much of the night, this 49ers’ roster has a chip on its shoulder following the unexpected off-season change at head coach.

“I knew we’d be prepared for this,” Graves said. “We dealt with adversity at the end of the year, so it’s just coming together. We have a motto, ‘be our brother’s keeper.’ Just knowing that everyone has each other’s back, it’s pretty easy to be comfortable with whoever you’re out on the court with. We stayed together.”

Step one

Not only was the 17-point victory an emphatic way to start their tenure in the American Athletic Conference, but it was also a sign that athletic director Mike Hill made the right decision in making Fearne the interim coach.

Charlotte dealt with plenty of adversity this off-season, with Ron Sanchez stepping down via Zoom call just days before the start of practice — returning to his old job as associate head coach with the Virginia Cavaliers.

Fearne was pleased with his team’s performance, as well as the atmosphere at Halton Arena.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity. It was inspirational how the guys were very supportive of us as a staff when we went through what we went through,” Fearne said. “That will be something that I’ll never forget. When you go through something like that — then put in the work to get to opening night — it is always special.

“It wasn’t pretty at times, but I’m extremely proud of their effort and their defensive effort. I thought we had a lot of contributions from (different) guys. I thought the crowd was big time,” Fearne said. “I thought the students were awesome, and that’s continued to build since I’ve been here. It was really loud, and it was actually really hard to coach, to be honest — because of the atmosphere.”

Pace yourself

On the first look at Charlotte’s revamped roster, it wasn’t quite the fast-paced offense that Fearne and the 49ers hinted to at prior to the season.

Charlotte’s pace was nearly identical to the end of Sanchez’s tenure, totaling 69 points on 62 possessions — which was one shy of their 2022-23 season average of 63.4, which ranked as the third slowest in the nation. Charlotte did, however, out rebound the Black Bears 35-24.

“I thought we were OK. I wouldn’t say we were as aggressive as we were in the previous scrimmage games we played,” Fearne said of the tempo. “It probably hurt that (Graves) and (Isaiah Folkes) were sitting on the bench for a lot of it in foul trouble, so that takes some of our pace away. Friday was the first time we’ve practiced as a full team, and we’re trying to work through some of those pieces. We’ll get better at it.”

Charlotte’s non-conference schedule is loaded with intriguing matchups, and the Spectrum Center will play host to the 49ers’ next appearance, a Friday night tilt against Liberty (1-0).

“We obviously have an exciting environment to play in at the Spectrum Center for the guys,” Fearne said. “We played there a couple of years ago, so it will be fun to get back there and play on that stage because they all have dreams of doing that.”

Highlight of the night

After starting the final 11 games of the 2022-23 season, guard Isaiah Folkes again found himself as the first player off the bench. It didn’t take long for Folkes to display the tenacity that he’s brought since stepping foot on campus, going coast to coast and throwing down a vicious tomahawk slam on Maine’s Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish early in the game.

“(Isaiah) has always been explosive. I didn’t really expect that type of power in the dunk, so that was impressive,” Graves said of his teammate. “Honestly, I probably said some things I shouldn’t have said when he hit the dunk, but it was an impressive play for sure.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:23 a.m. An earlier photo misidentified a Charlotte 49ers player as Nik Graves.

This story was originally published November 6, 2023 at 11:16 PM.