Last weekend was a good one for Charlotte 49ers basketball to remember — and forget
Charlotte 49ers’ men’s basketball coach Ron Sanchez wants his team to remember what happened last Saturday evening. And he also wants them to forget.
The 49ers, who host Conference USA opponent UAB at 5 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday in Halton Arena, are coming off what is unquestionably the low point of the season so far.
For 34 minutes last Saturday, Charlotte played exactly as expected against a Division II opponent, holding a 59-47 lead after being in front by as much as 18 points earlier in the second half.
The 49ers-Crusaders game had been scheduled on the fly, after Charlotte’s two-game set at Marshall was postponed due to injury and illness problems in the Thundering Herd’s program.
But in the final six minutes, Belmont Abbey rallied to tie, and the Crusaders went on to hand the 49ers a stunning 75-72 setback.
So now Sanchez must prepare his team for a two-game series against a UAB team picked to finish among the conference’s leaders.
“It was a painful but beautiful lesson that the players needed, and the coaches needed,” Sanchez said of last Saturday’s loss. “We just lost our way.”
He said the players and coaches saw plenty of errors and bad decisions when they reviewed the Belmont Abbey game.
“They were disappointing,” Sanchez said of the errors. “And some of that is on me.”
Yet at the same time, the 49ers’ head coach doesn’t want his team swallowed by the fallout from the loss.
“UAB is a very good team, and we’ve got to focus on them,” he said.
The Blazers (9-1, 2-0) have four players averaging in double figures and are outscoring opponents by more than 20 points a game and holding foes to an average of 57 points per contest.
They cause much of their trouble on defense, forcing opponents into an average of nearly 18 turnovers a game. UAB also is averaging more than eight steals a contest.
“They rebound well, trap well and try to confuse you,” Sanchez said of the Blazers. “They’re the kind of team that keeps you on your heels.”
But the 49ers are playing excellent defense, holding opponents to 64.5 points a game. They also have been efficient rebounders. Two weeks ago, they held Western Kentucky to seven offensive rebounds in two games — half of what the Hilltoppers average in one game.
Sanchez says the 49ers and other Conference USA teams are still learning how to cope with this year’s schedule, which has teams playing the same opponent on back-to-back days. He says the Charlotte staff will stick with what they did two weeks ago, when they split a pair of games with C-USA preseason favorite Western Kentucky.
“I think we had a great plan, so we’ll stay the course,” he said. “We’ll be sure to get some amount of rest between games. I think that’s important.”
49ers women travel: The Charlotte women’s team (3-4, 2-0) will travel to UAB (7-3, 2-2) for games at 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Blazers feature Margaret Whitley, whose 23.3-point scoring average ranks second in Conference USA.
“It’s the same, every year, with UAB,” 49ers’ coach Cara Consuegra said. “They have a great scorer. Then that player graduates, and I say, ‘Whew!’ And the next year, there’s someone else.”
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
