Charlotte 49ers end wild week with another upset, this time of ACC foe Wake Forest

The Charlotte 49ers’ journey back toward college basketball relevance continued Sunday with a 67-65 overtime victory against Wake Forest at Halton Arena.

It was the second significant victory of the week for second-year coach Ron Sanchez’s 49ers (2-1), who beat Mecklenburg County rival Davidson last Tuesday.

“Our players are growing as we move along this,” Sanchez said. “We haven’t had many guys who have been in two- or three-point games, where you have to be sharp in your spacing and passing, things you can’t replicate in practice. You have to be in that setting. I’m happy we can learn that with a two-point victory rather than wonder why we didn’t come up with a win.”

This time it was the ACC’s Deacons (2-2), who rallied late in regulation to tie the game 57-57 on a 3-pointer by Ismael Massoud with 16.2 seconds left. A 3-pointer by Charlotte freshman Jahmir Young (24 points) that might have won it in regulation missed, sending it into overtime.

The 49ers made six consecutive free throws to open the overtime period and never trailed after that. Wake Forest’s Brandon Childress missed a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left. After Charlotte’s Malik Martin grabbed the rebound, the Deacons failed to foul as the 49ers raced with the ball up court.

“We didn’t have enough juice to finish it out the way we needed to,” said Deacons coach Danny Manning.

Guard Jordan Shepherd added 16 points for Charlotte and Martin, who had a critical 3-pointer late in regulation, added 12. Childress had 19 points for Wake Forest.

Deacons guard Andrien White, who played three seasons for Charlotte and is 27th on the program’s career scoring list, scored 10 points and had three rebounds. White transferred from Charlotte to Wake Forest after interim coach Houston Fancher was fired after the 2017-18 season. After sitting out last season, he has this one season of eligibility remaining.

“It was good to get back in Halton for the last time in my career,” White said. “My emotions are coming back to the place that I started, the place that birthed me. The support has been good; it’s always been good here. I just wish we could have come out with the win.”

And one

Young, a true freshman point guard, hit his first eight shots (four of them 3-pointers) on his way to a 24-point game. He added four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Personal foul

The Deacons had problems with Charlotte’s “packline” defense. Coach Danny Manning said his players weren’t ready to shoot when receiving the ball, with 49ers defenders closing in quickly. Wake Forest ended the game shooting 37.5 percent.

ICYMI

It was the 49ers’ first victory against an ACC opponent since 2011, when they beat Georgia Tech 86-83 in double overtime in Atlanta.

Making sense of the numbers

9:53: The amount of time Charlotte went without a basket in the second half. The 49ers led 35-31 at the start of that stretch, when forward Amidou Bamba made a layup with 18:12 left. A 3-pointer by Young put Charlotte up 46-43 with 8:19 left.

0: Free throws attempted by three Wake Forest starters -- White, Childress and Ody Oguama.

This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 9:51 PM.