In OT, Louisiana Tech prevails over Charlotte 49ers, 93-90

The Charlotte men overcame a seven-point deficit with under five minutes remaining to push the game into overtime Saturday night, before Louisiana Tech came away with a 93-90 win in front of 4,209 at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Tech moved to 13-3 and 2-1 in Conference USA play while Charlotte fell to 4-11 and 1-2.

Charlotte guard Jon Davis’ layup attempt with 34 seconds remaining in regulation failed to fall, but the freshman got a second chance and made the most of it with a layup with 17 seconds left, before the game went into overtime.

The 49ers jumped out to a four-point in overtime before the Bulldogs went on a 10-3 run to seal the win.

Three who mattered

▪  Joseph Uchebo was a force in the paint for the 49ers, pouring in 18 points and pulling down 20 rebounds, 11 coming off the offensive glass.

▪  Davis led Charlotte with 24 points while adding six assists, four rebounds and a steal.

▪  Braxton Ogbueze added 22 points for Charlotte, including a 6-for-13 performance from behind the 3-point line.

Observations

▪  Charlotte forward Anthony Vanhook left with an ankle injury early in the second half, forcing the 49ers to go small down the stretch.

▪  The 49ers dominated the glass, outrebounding the Bulldogs 49-34.

▪  Charlotte hit on a solid 43.9 percent (36-of-82) of its shots from the floor, but that wasn’t enough against a Louisiana Tech team that connected on 57.4 percent (35-of-61 of its shots from the floor.

▪  Neither team took advantage of the charity stripe, with Charlotte connecting on 52.9 percent (9-of-17) of its free throws while Tech managed to hit on only 50 percent (9-of-18) of its attempts.

Worth mentioning

▪  Charlotte had two players recording double-doubles, with Andrien White adding a 10-point, 11-rebounds performance for the 49ers.

▪  The 49ers held the biggest lead of the game with a 10-point advantage at the 11:50 mark of the first half on Curran Scott layup.

▪  Louisiana Tech sophomore guard Dayon Griffin hit on 10-of-11 of his shots from the floor, including 7-of-8 3-point attempts to lead all scorers with 28 points.

▪  The Bulldogs hit on 58.3 percent (14-of-24) of their 3-point tries while Charlotte hit on only 28.1 percent (9-of-32) from long range.

They said it

“We came out of the gates really well. They’re a good basketball team and came out in the second half and made a run at us. It looked like we might have been dead after losing Van Hook and having to go small the rest of the way. But man oh man our guys played their hearts out and managed to take it to overtime. Obviously when you get that close you want to get the ‘W,’ but that was a great experience for our guys to come into this building, where it’s very tough to play, and have a shot at the win.” - Charlotte coach Mark Price

“John missed the one drive and then came back to hit the one that put it into overtime. For a freshman to do that was an unbelievable effort.” - Price on Uchebo

“He dominated the boards but we didn’t let that get to us. He played a great game but we knew we had to find a way even with him dominating the paint the way he was.” - Louisiana Tech senior Alex Hamilton

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 10:41 PM with the headline "In OT, Louisiana Tech prevails over Charlotte 49ers, 93-90."