Charlotte 49ers basketball focused on staying in the moment

CHARLOTTE ATHLETICS

Halton Arena was packed for the first time since the 2012-13 season Saturday to watch the 49ers beat East Carolina 67-52 in an AAC game. Charlotte is on a school-best eight game conference win streak and first in the AAC.

Charlotte is on its first ever eight-game winning streak in conference play.

The 49ers (14-7, 8-1 AAC) knocked off in-state rival East Carolina (11-12, 4-6 AAC) in front of a sold-out crowd in Halton Arena 67-52.

“If you can’t get excited about a sporting event like that, you don’t have a pulse,” 49ers’ interim head coach Aaron Fearne said. “That was magic. I’ve been a part of a lot of big games in my past, but that was a fun one, that’s for sure.”

With nine games left in the regular season, the 49ers – who are first in the AAC standings – aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves. Earning an NCAA tournament berth would be nice for a program that last made it in 2005 when Charlotte lost in the first round to North Carolina State. Charlotte has a two-game road trip that begins Feb. 6 in Tampa, Fla.  against South Florida, which like Charlotte has one conference loss. The game tips off at 9 p.m.

“I know it is very cliché,” Fearne said, “but every day we just come in and try to work really hard. You can ask the [players], I am pretty vanilla when it comes to that type of thing. The guys are going to be held accountable to doing it. If we do the right stuff, day after day, we will get better and we will put ourselves in a position to hopefully have some success.”For the players, the electricity was doubled.

“[The game] was amazing,” junior forward Igor Milicic Jr. said. “We came into the locker room after the last part of warm-ups and were jumping. We could feel the energy and we maybe got a little stressed. Maybe that is why we didn’t come out as strong as we wanted.”

The first half was a struggle for the 49ers’ offense. East Carolina came into the game fourth in total defense in the AAC, and it showed. The 49ers didn’t get many good looks and shot 10-for-25 from the floor at intermission.

Not to be deterred, the 49ers corrected their mistakes and began to stretch their lead in the second half with more physicality. Contrary to what the common fan might think, in Fearne’s mind, fouling can be a good thing.

“I got onto [the team] a little,” Fearne said. “I didn’t think our physicality was very good. I don’t think we committed a foul for a long period of time to start the game. I kind of don’t want my teams to be like that. I want them to foul a bit. That just shows how physical that we will be. We got pretty physical in the second half.”

Both Fearne and Milicic were impressed by the number of fans who came out to support the team. Students camped at “Fearneville” outside Halton to get the best seats in the student section leading up to the game. Fearne is glad his team can contribute to creating a winning experience for the student body.

“The Fearneville saying had nothing to do with me,” Fearne said. “I definitely didn’t come up with that. That was student-driven, which is awesome. I’ve said this before: I want this to be about the players and about their experience. [I want it] to be about the students and community, and I’ll just play my small part in it.”

Said Milicic: “There were people camping out. We met them and went and delivered pizza, Bojangle’s and doughnuts, so, yeah, it was amazing. When we saw them out, they were waiting for our game and you don’t see that type of stuff every day. It’s just magic. That definitely carried through to the game.”

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