Charlotte 49ers confident heading into tough test at Louisiana Tech

Saturday might not be the most ideal time for the Charlotte 49ers to play at Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs had a 39-game home winning streak broken Thursday when they lost 56-53 against Old Dominion.

“I’m sure they’re going to have a chip on their shoulders,” 49ers coach Mark Price said.

But this also probably isn’t the best time for any Conference USA foe to face Price’s young team, which picked up a confidence-boosting victory Thursday at Southern Mississippi.

“The guys were really excited about it,” Price said of Charlotte’s 82-76 victory against the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Miss. “It was good to be able to play well and have a win to show for it. It’s better than the alternative, that’s for sure.”

Charlotte (4-10, 1-1) lost its C-USA opener last Saturday at Old Dominion after playing a rugged nonconference schedule. Although the 49ers lost six straight during one stretch, there were signs of improvement in a team that now features just one player (guard Braxton Ogbueze) who was a significant contributor last season (senior forward Bernard Sullivan is out indefinitely with concussion symptoms).

But lessons learned during the nonconference schedule might be paying dividends now.

“We struggled with our schedule early on to get to this point,” said Price.

Here’s something else about Charlotte’s schedule: Saturday’s game against Louisiana Tech (12-2, 1-1) in Ruston, La., is the third of the 49ers’ league-opening three-game road swing. Then the 49ers return to Halton Arena next week for five straight games, beginning with Middle Tennessee on Thursday.

The 49ers have been getting strong performances from a variety of players, and it was junior forward Anthony Vanhook’s turn against Southern Miss. Vanhook scored 16 points on six-of-seven shooting and had seven rebounds.

Freshman guard Andrien White has also played well recently (scoring 27 in a loss against ODU last week) and senior center Joseph Uchebo averages 9.8 points and 8.6 rebounds. Ogbueze is making 40.7 percent of his 3-pointers. Freshman Jon Davis has been steady at point guard and had 18 points and five assists against Southern Miss.

“That’s good and bad,” Price said of having different players come to the fore each game. “Because it’s also nice to know what you’re going to get from certain guys. We’re starting to get that.”

Around C-USA

Uchebo is fourth in the league in rebounding and fifth in field-goal percentage (59.1) … Charlotte (12.57) and Louisiana Tech (12.33) are the league’s top-two offensive rebounding teams … Louisiana Tech’s Alex Hamilton is one of C-USA’s top point guards, averaging 17.8 points and a league-leading 6.0 assists … Alabama-Birmingham has won nine in a row and shot 70.0 percent from the field in a 104-82 victory Thursday against Texas-San Antonio … Marshall got double-doubles from James Kelly (18 points, 15 rebounds) and Ryan Taylor (21 points, 11 rebounds) Thursday against Florida Atlantic.

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Charlotte 49ers confident heading into tough test at Louisiana Tech."