Charlotte 49ers drop season opener on the road to James Madison 79-74
.jpg "Freshman guard Jahmir Young, scoring in a recent exhibition against Georgia, had 17 points for the Charlotte 49ers against James Madison on Wednesday.")
The Charlotte 49ers couldn’t maintain a hot start to their season-opening college basketball game Wednesday against James Madison, falling 79-74 to the Dukes at the JMU Convocation Center.
The 49ers (0-1) made 11 of their first 16 shots and led by as many as 12 points in the first half. But Charlotte cooled off considerably after that as the Dukes cut the 49ers’ lead to 36-35 at halftime. The Dukes went up 46-45 on a jumper by Matt Lewis with 13 minutes, 14 seconds left and never trailed after that.
“We showed flashes of the direction that we want to go but,” 49ers coach Ron Sanchez said. “We also showed our inexperience. We got up 12 points at one point and they went into a zone and we panicked. We did not manage the emotion of the game well which are things that we have to go through and experience to continue to grow.”
Charlotte, which shot 40.6 percent from the field (including 9-of-33 from 3-range) got double-figure scoring from four players, led by freshman guard Jahmir Young’s 16. Guard Jordan Shepherd added 15, and Brice Williams and forward Milos Supica added 11 each. Supica led the 49ers with seven rebounds.
“We have to shoot the ball better especially if teams are going to play zone against us,” Sanchez said. “The offense worked, we got good looks, we just did not make shots.”
Lewis had 22 to lead James Madison (1-0).
Next up for the 49ers is a game against Mecklenburg County rival Davidson next Tuesday at Halton Arena.
And one
Williams, son of 49ers legend Henry Williams (the program’s all-time leading scorer) had quite the debut. Brice Williams scored 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
Personal foul
It could have been much worse for the 49ers. James Madison made just 12-of-28 free throws.
ICYMI
There were times last season that 49ers coach Ron Sanchez’s bench was so thin that he had two walk-ons in the rotation. That’s not going to be the case this season. Eleven 49ers got in the game Wednesday, nine of whom played double-figure minutes. Eight of them scored.
Making sense of the numbers
The 49ers made 40.6 percent of their shots — a number that wouldn’t have been nearly that high had Charlotte not started the game making 11 of its first 16 from the field (including 4 of 7 from 3-point range).
This story was originally published November 6, 2019 at 10:30 PM.