Former CUSA foes to resume intra-state rivalry Wednesday night

East Carolina and Charlotte haven’t played since the 49ers left for the Atlantic 10

Following a rough 1-4 start—which included 30-plus point defeats to Wake Forest and Tennessee, East Carolina will look to continue its hot-shooting and winning ways on Wednesday night when it travels to Halton Arena for an 8 o’clock tip with Bobby Lutz and his Charlotte 49ers.

The Pirates (3-4) have won consecutive contests and will seek to extend its win streak to three against its former league foe. They overcame a 20-point deficit to post an 82-73 victory over South Dakota State in their Paradise Jam finale’ and built on that momentum with an 82-61 blowout win at UNCG on Saturday.

While SDSU and UNCG certainly aren’t Wake Forest and Tennessee, East Carolina has undoubtedly shown marked improvement. Mack McCarthy’s club has begun to take better care of the basketball, shoot the ball better from the perimeter and get contributions from junior Jamar Abrams.

ECU committed at least 19 turnovers in each of its first four games and 35 against Tennessee. It has, however, minimized its miscues to 11, 17 and 14 over the last three games.

After shooting just 21 percent (10-of-47) from three-point range in their first three games, the Pirates have connected on over 42 percent (28-of-66) of their long range attempts.

Abrams, who produced very little early, has averaged 13 points in the Pirates’ last three—including 15-point efforts against Northern Iowa and UNCG.

Abrams is part of what has been a steady starting five for the Pirates. Head Coach Mack McCarthy, as he suspected he would, has utilized the same starters for each of the Pirates seven games to date.

Junior point guard Brock Young, who plays just over 32 minutes—second most on the squad, produces a team-high 14.4 points while also dishing out a club-high 5.7 assists. He is turning it over nearly six times per game, but his miscues have begun to decrease as the team adjusts to its new style of play.

Power forward Darrius Morrow and shooting guard Jontae Sherrod are also averaging in double figures.

Morrow, a sophomore who plays a team-high 34 minutes, is putting up 13.6 points and pulling down 7 rebounds. He is shooting 64 percent from the floor and delivered a 22 point, 9-board performance the last time out against UNCG.

Sherrod, who has scored in double figures in all but one game, is third on the team with his 12.6 points per game mark.

Morrow is receiving help on the inside from redshirt junior center Chad Wynn and DaQuan Joyner.

Wynn, a 6’10” Georgia native, is averaging 9.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per contest. He leads the team with seven blocks. Wynn needs to become more aggressive and get to the free throw line more. He has shot just ten free throws.

Joyner has come off the bench in all seven games and is producing 5.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 20 minutes per game.

Sophomore Chris Turner and freshman Erin Straughn are providing bench minutes in the backcourt. Turner is shooting just 32 percent from the floor, but he has knocked down 41 percent (9-of-22) from beyond the arc. Straughn (2.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg) is playing nearly 12.5 minutes per game in his first season with the program.

The 49ers (4-1) lone loss was a 42-point blowout defeat at the hands of Duke. 12 th year head coach Bobby Lutz’s club has been away from home just like East Carolina. The game with the Pirates will be Charlotte’s second game at Halton Arena. They beat the Bulldogs of UNC-Asheville, 86-70, in the season and home opener.

After getting drilled by the Blue Devils, the Niners responded with wins against Yale (88-74) and Hofstra (80-72).

Charlotte is shooting just 29 percent from deep and has relied on the steady showings from nearly Salisbury native and Boston College transfer Shamari Spears. Spears, who was recently named Co-Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week, is averaging 24.3 points per game and has scored over 20 points in each of his four games played after missing the opener versus UNC-A. The 6’6”, 245-pound post player is also pulling down five rebounds per game.

Lutz has started seven different players, as he has a bench that goes nine or ten deep, but he’s stuck with the starting backcourt combination of DiJuan Harris and Derrio Green. Harris, a senior point guard that logs a team-high 33-plus minutes, is second on the team with 9.2 points. He pulls down five rebounds and dishes out 4.6 assists. Green, a sophomore, teams with redshirt freshman Shamarr Bowden as the club’s most potent three-point threats. Bowden, who has come off the bench in every game, has knocked down a team-high 11 trifectas and is averaging eight points.

Phil Jones and Chris Braswell provide frontcourt help. Jones (6’10”, 255) averages 6.6 points and 6.4 boards. He also swats 2.6 shots. Braswell produces 6.4 points while snatching down a team-high 8.4 rebounds.

Final Analysis and Prediction

While East Carolina has shown improvement in each of its last three games—a narrow loss to a solid Northern Iowa team and victories over South Dakota State and UNCG—the Pirates will face their most challenging road test to date. The crowd size will likely double that of what they saw at Campbell and UNCG.

This contest will likely be a competitive one, but expect the Niners to pull out the victory due to them taking better care of the basketball and shooting better from the charity stripe. The Niners don’t shoot it as well as the Pirates, but they will get more attempts since they only commit an average of 12 miscues per game. Spears will likely have a fifth straight 20-point effort against what has been a soft ECU defense.

Charlotte 79 East Carolina 70