Jon Davis scored 18 points to go along with 13 from Malik Martin and 10 more from Milos Supica as Charlotte extended ECU’s losing streak in Halton Arena to eleven straight games with a 55-49 victory Tuesday night.
The Pirates cut the Charlotte lead to two late in the contest, but were unable to capitalize on three straight possessions down the stretch which proved to be enough to allow the 49’ers to hold on for just their third win of the season.
ECU got 16 points from Shawn Williams along with 14 from Seth LeDay and 11 points from Jayden Gardner for a Pirate team that hit just 36 percent from the floor and just 6 of 10 from the stripe to fall to 6-5 on the season.
“We had a stretch where we were playing alright offensively but we missed ton of wide open three's. Then we had a stretch of six possessions where we took four bad shots,” ECU head coach Joe Dooley said afterward.
The Pirates took too many shots from outside and did not get their post people involved enough at key times late in the contest.
“You can't run in there and fly in there with no game plan thinking that you’ve got to score because you’re gotten in the game and some guys have to understand what their role is, " said Dooley, "They’re ball movers and when you look at our post guys, they went 11 for 19 and our perimeter guys went 7 for 28. So go where the ball needs to go.”
“We did have a bunch of missed shots but I thought our defense was more than good enough to win the game. You look at the defensive stats, 39 from the floor, 29 from three, they only made ten free throws and we turned them over 17 times and we only turn it over 13 times - those are usually numbers good enough to win the game but 49 points isn’t enough to win the game.”
Charlotte(3-5) got off to a fast 8-2 lead to open the game before a Seth LeDay basket helped ECU regain the lead at 9-8 six and a half minutes into the first half.
Two Seth LeDay’s dunks then had the Pirates up by two at 19-18. Then Brandon Younger’s three-pointer helped Charlotte build as much as a seven point lead at the four minute mark before Jon Davis’ eleventh point of the half extended the 49’ers lead to 33-26 at the break.
Seth LeDay scored 12 first half points to go along with 7 from Jayden Gardner for the Pirates who committed ten turnovers in just the first twenty minutes. Both teams shot at a 44 percent clip in the first period. Jon Davis led Charlotte with eleven points at halftime.
But the Pirates only had two turnovers in the entire second half and got a jump start in the first three minutes from Shawn Williams who hit a pair of free throws followed by a three-point jumper that combined with a Dimitrije Spasojevic layup to cut the 49’er lead to two.
A pair of Davis jumpers and a jumper from John Kitoko gave Charlotte a five-point working margin at the eight minute mark, a lead they would maintain to the three minute mark.
Addison Hill’s three pointer eventually cut the Charlotte lead to two at 51-49 with less than two minutes to play. ECU got the basketball three more times with opportunities to tie the game but came up empty three straight times down the stretch. Jon Davis was then fouled with seven seconds to play and hit a pair of Charlotte free throws that ultimately put the game out of reach.
