Second half heroics continue for the Charlotte 49ers

CHARLOTTE ATHLETICS

Charlotte guards Raúl Villar and Dezayne Mingo celebrate the 49ers' 83-78 win against Alabama-Birmingham in the American Conference tournament quarterfinals Friday in Birmingham, Alabama. The No. 5 seed 49ers take on top seed South Florida in Saturday's semifinal.

Charlotte is headed to the American Conference semifinals for the first time.

The 49ers used another stellar second half to beat Alabama-Birmingham 83-78. Just a day removed from setting the record for field goal percentage in a half with 77.3% in the second half against Tulane, the 49ers shot 76.9% in the second half against the Blazers. At one point, Charlotte hit 14 straight shots in the second half to advance to the semifinals against top-seeded South Florida on Saturday. 

“I just try to keep it positive,” 49ers’ coach Aaron Fearne said about the halftime message. “It’s hard for me to do at times, for sure. That’s just naturally how I am a little bit. Guys will laugh about that a bit. But I thought yesterday’s game [against Tulane] we generated a lot of good shots, just didn’t knock them down. … I didn’t think we did a good job of moving the ball in the first half today. In the second half we were able to do that.”

Fearne joked that he could just rewind what he said after the Tulane game when it comes to rough first half shooting. But in March, finding ways to win gritty games is what teams have to do. 

“They’re a difficult team to play,” Fearne said of UAB. “With the changing defenses and two games in a row, we’ve come out in the second half and just shot the lights out. That helps. It definitely helps when we can do those types of things, but as I said to the guys in the locker room, I think we find a way as a staff and players to just find out some stuff that works and we had to do that in the second half and made some plays. And that is what you have to do. This is tournament basketball; you have to make plays. We did a really good job of that.”

Charlotte guard Dezayne Mingo set a career-high in assists with 11 against Tulane on Thursday and was just one rebound shy of a triple-double. Against UAB, he set a career-high in scoring with 35 points – 19 in the second half. He also shot a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor in the second half. 

“It feels good knowing that the coaches and the players both believe in me,” Mingo said. “I don't like to get too high or too low, so I’m grateful for both games. I’m just ready to move on to the next one.”

Said Fearne: “I talked to Dezayne before the second half. I just needed him to move the ball quicker, get him moving. I thought we cut better in the second half to be able to break them down and move them around and spread them out. And then the guys move the ball to open players. There were multiple times where we hit the roll or hit the post. And they naturally, definitely tried to dig that thing out of there pretty aggressively, and the guys were poised enough to find open guys on the perimeter.”

Charlotte guard Ben Bradford, who led the 49ers with 29 points against Tulane, followed it with 17 on 7-for-16 against UAB. 

“We had a quick turnaround, playing late last night and then playing at noon today,” he said. “Recovery was big. We had an early film session, but just came back in, just being locked in in the second half. We know the shots are going to fall, so we just stay confident.”

Comments