Courtesy: Charlotte 49ers
Charlotte, NC – The Charlotte 49ers came up on the short end in a 76-70 loss to the visiting Campbell Fighting Camels inside Halton Arena.
“Right now we’re just two totally different teams,” Charlotte 49ers head coach Mark Price said. “We practice really well, we practice hard, and at the games it just looks like it doesn’t carry over. We put in a couple things, it was wide open in the first half and we were just throwing the ball all over the place. We just got to keep working at it”
Braxton Ogbueze led the 49ers with 24 points while going 9-14 from the floor and 5-10 from beyond the arc. Jon Davis also chipped in with 19 points, a career high for Davis while also contributing a team-high five assists. Benas Griciunas added a team high 12 rebounds which was a new career-high.
Chris Clemons led Campbell with a game high 26 points. DJ Mason added sixteen points for the Fighting Camels.
Charlotte outrebounded Campbell, 43-36. The Niners also outscored the Campbell bench behind the scoring of Davis, 26-10.
The 49ers fell behind early as Campbell opened the game up with a 12-5 run over the first four minutes. Clemons buried two threes in that stretch to help pace Campbell. Bernard Sullivan, Curran Scott and Joseph Uchebo each chipped in points for the Niners at the start.
After a 5-0 run for Campbell out of the 16 minute media timeout the 49ers responded with Scott and Davis scoring back-to-back baskets. However, that didn’t last long as Campbell answered with a 7-2 run taking a 24-11 lead with 8:58 to go in the first half.
The Niners came back on a 9-3 run which included three straight baskets from Davis as well as a three-point play from Ogbueze to cut the deficit down to 27-20 with 5:29 to go in the first half. Right before halftime the 49ers went on a little run which was capped by an Ogbueze three with 1:23 cutting Campbell’s lead to 33-29. With Campbell leading 37-31 with 30 seconds left in the half, Davis completed a three-point play cutting Campbell’s halftime lead to 37-34.
As the second half got underway the 49ers fell behind as Clemons buried back-to-back threes for the Fighting Camels the second one extending the lead to 51-42 with 15:30 to go in the game. After not much change in the score over the next four minutes the game sat at 59-49 with 11:49 to go.
The 49ers went on a 7-0 run capped by Ogbueze’s three-pointer to pull the 49ers within three points with 10 mins to go. After Campbell extended it back out with back-to-back layups the 49ers answered again with back-to-back threes by Ridell Camidge and Ogbueze cutting Campbell’s lead to 63-62 with 6:30 left in the game.
The 49ers continued to hang around getting the game to within a point on multiple occasions however they were unable to take the lead as Campbell fought off every run with points of their own.
The 49ers take 10 days off for final exams. Charlotte returns to the court on Dec.19 when they will travel to Boone to take on Appalachian State opening tip set for 2pm.
