Men’s Basketball Central: Charlotte vs. FIU

Charlotte, North Carolina – After nearly three weeks, Charlotte’s men’s basketball team is back at Halton Arena ready to face the FIU on Thursday night. Tips from the Queen City are scheduled for 7 PM ET on ESPN+.

The Niner Nation can follow Thursday’s contest on the ESPN+ live stream to hear Bobby Rosinski and Jobey Thomas call. Here on ESPN 730 The Game and The Varsity App, Matt Swierad and Charlotte alum Trevor Wilt explains the action. Via Sidearm Live Stats, here.

layup line
– Thursday’s game at Halton Arena will be the 15th meeting between the 49ers and the Panthers at college Hardwood and the 10th meeting from Queen City.
– The competition marks Charlotte’s first appearance from Halton Arena in nearly three weeks since she entered UTEP on January 16th at MLK Day. Perimeter of the Dale F. Halton Arena.
– A win on Thursday would mark the CLT’s fifth win in six games against the FIU and prevent Charlotte from losing streak at home for the first time since January 2021.
– The win was Charlotte’s ninth home victory of the season, pushing their home record to 9-1 for the year. Winning five of their last six home games gave the CLT 13 home victories, the program’s most in a single season at home when the team went 13-2 at home in 2019-20. We won many victories.
– The 49ers entered Thursday’s game and took their program’s 895th career win. Just five wins in 2022-23 and his 18 wins overall are needed to reach the program’s historic 900th win. The earliest the Niners can accomplish the feat is on Feb. 16 from inside Halton Arena against Western Kentucky.

panther scout
– The FIU arrives early in the weekend on a three-game winning streak after a weekend home sweep through Western Kentucky and Central Tennessee last Thursday and Saturday. The streak is the longest FIU winning streak since his eighth streak early last season.
– In the stat sheet, the Panthers continue to lead C-USA Player of the Year candidate Denver Jones. Denver He Jones has scored 19.3 points per game and at FIU he has scored 20+11 times in 20 appearances. Behind Jones on the scoresheet is C-USA Freshman of the Year frontrunner Arturo Dean, averaging 11.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists in all of his 22 games for the Panthers this season. I’m here.
– On the bench, he’s led by fifth-year headman Jeremy Ballard, who broke a career coaching record of .500 during the Panthers’ current three-game winning streak.

Series history
– Thursday’s match-up will be the 15th match-up between programs and the 10th match-up from inside Halton Arena. Charlotte has won four straight games over the Panthers at Queen City, earned a season sweep in the 2020-21 season, and beat the FIU 64-55 at home last season.
– On that night last February, CLT Jameel Young took over the second half to lead Green & White to a 9-point win.
– When the two teams met in Miami earlier this season, the FIU beat the 49ers 62-60 after the CLT traveled to Miami on game day after their flights were canceled due to weather the day before. bottom. The 49ers failed to win the final possession as he tied or took the lead with three open looks.

49ERS take final possession at RICE, 65-63
– Charlotte lost Thursday’s final three-game road swing to Rice, 65-63 decision.
– Niners flipped on last possession lucy paterson fouled Quincy Olivari on the last possession and sent him to the foul line. There, Rice’s senior guard drained both shots to put Rice ahead with less than three seconds to play.
– The CLT, led by Patterson’s 18-point, 5-assist effort, finished 8/11 from the field, scoring 13 of 18 points in the first half and giving Charlotte the lead heading into the locker room. rest.

C-USA Log Jam
– Except for league-leading Florida Atlantic, every team has at least three losses in Conference USA.
– In league play, only two teams, leaders FAU and North Texas, have 6 or more wins in 10 or 11 games. 3rd and he 9th are separated by just two games heading into the second half of conference play.
– The 11-team C-USA tournament sees the top 5 seeds bid farewell to the quarterfinal round of the tournament. The 6th through 11th seeds will play on the first day of the tournament in Frisco.
– Currently in eighth place, Charlotte is just 1.5 games behind Middle Tennessee and is bidding its fifth and final farewell to the league’s quarterfinal round, with six of its last 10 games played at home. I’m here.
– After defeating North Texas twice, FAU needs six more wins in conference play to clinch the regular season crown in C-USA and the top seed for next month’s tournament at The Star.

Niners turn to unsung heroes off the bench
– Averaged just over 11 minutes off the bench, Charlotte has relied heavily on off-the-bench impact from alumni transfers. Josh Aldrich.
– The Wilmington, N.C. native is the second-best 3-point shooter on the Niners in percentage terms, exhausting 46.2% of his ranged attempts and averaging 0.28 points per minute with limited action. I’m here.
– Where he’s worth is the instant spark off the bench. In a game where Aldrich made at least one of his 3s, the Niners are now 9-2, followed by his two losses against the UAB and the FAU. In a game where Aldrich failed to convert from downtown, the CLT is just he’s 4-6.

TAKEOVER KYE appears at RICE
– Charlotte sophomore despite falling in Houston on Thursday lucy paterson Compiling one of his most complete performances during conference play, he scored 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, had 5 assists, had 3 rebounds and grabbed 3 steals. bottom.
– His eight field goals were a season-high, and his 73% shooting clip from the field marked his best shooting performance as a member of Green & White.
– Patterson is currently third on the team in points (9.0 average) and first in assists (73 total, 3.5 apg average) in 21 games.

Prince rediscovers form in Niner’s Last Two
– At Charlotte’s Sophomore Road Contest at WKU and Rice Ali Khalifa Was Charlotte’s most consistent player.
– In the pair’s game, the Egyptian Alexandria had 17.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 58% from the field, 40% from 3-point range and 100% from the foul line.
– After scoring in double figures in each of the CLT’s first six conference contests, the Charlotte big man has scored just 15 points against UTEP and Middle Tennessee, with just six total field goals. was.
– In the Niners’ win over WKU at Diddle Arena, Khalifa scored a career-high 22 points and smashed a career-high 10 field goal attempts to lead Charlotte to their third victory at Bowling Green .

Victory is…
– Avoid back-to-back losses inside the Halton Arena since January 2021 when CLT lost back-to-back to Belmont Abbey and UAB.
– Giving Charlotte an impressive 9-1 record at home, just four wins away from tying the program record for most wins inside the Halton Arena.
Avoided losing streak against FIU for the first time since 3 consecutive losses in 2018 and 2019.
– Keeping Charlotte in the mix to bid farewell to the quarterfinals at next month’s Conference USA tournament.

nugget nugget
– Despite holding a record of 4-6 in Conference USA, Charlotte’s league scoring differential is +17, and their six losses against C-USA totaled 22 points, the final tally. 5 losses total 14 points. point. The CLT has two league wins of 15+ points at home and three conference losses with 2 points each.
– C-USA Sixth Man of the Year Favorite, Bryce Williams He has yet to start a game this season and ranks sixth on the team in minutes, playing just 22.9 minutes per outing, but still leads the team in scoring with 12.0 points per game. I’m here. Williams does so while shooting 50 percent from the field, 42 percent from his three-point range, and 82 percent from his stripes for charity.
– With 21 contests, Charlotte still ranks second in Conference USA in defensive scoring, holding league opponents to just over 65 points per game. CLT has held his six opponents below 60 points and only five times in 21 shows has he given up 70 or more points.
– Across 21 contests, Charlotte’s assist percentage has remained above 50% this season, with the Niners posting 293 assists on 533 field goals for a 55% percentage. This season, the Niners have assisted on at least 50% of their field goals 17 times this season, and Hulton has assisted on all but one of his in-arena tilts.
– Recently founded in 1965, Florida International University has quickly become one of the nation’s largest intrastate institutions. With 58,787 total enrollments (both on-campus and online), FIU is the largest institution in Florida and her fourth largest in the United States based on total enrollment. The university was originally proposed in 1943 by State Senator Ernest “Cap” Graham, who said the county needed to establish a public university to accommodate the city’s growing population. rice field.

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Charlotte will play their second home tilt of the weekend when they welcome Queen City to their first ranked opponent since 2014, when the 49ers hosted the No. 19 FAU on Saturday afternoon. Opening taps from Halton Arena are scheduled for 4pm ET on ESPN+.