Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
CHARLOTTE 81, USF 78: Down by 14 in the second half, the 49ers use 3-pointers to win.
By PETE YOUNG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 19, 2002
TAMPA -- This is how quickly a game -- a season? -- can change.
One moment, South Florida was riding the crest of a rabid home crowd and national television audience, surging to a seven-point lead with less than four minutes left. The next, the lead was dwindling ... then it was gone ... then the Bulls lost. Charlotte snatched an 81-78 victory Friday over USF at the Sun Dome. It was the Bulls' second straight Conference USA loss, which means for the first time this season, there are serious doubts about USF's postseason aspirations. The players didn't use such stark terms, but when Altron Jackson's desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer drifted wide, they had absorbed a collective blow to the gut.
"I don't think it's devastating," senior forward B.B. Waldon (20 points, nine rebounds) said. "We've got a lot of conference games."
"A loss is a loss," said point guard Reggie Kohn, whose team dropped to 12-5, 3-2. "We just have to bounce back (Wednesday at) Tulane."
USF shot 56.3 percent from the field and led by as many as 14 early in the second half.
But Charlotte's 3-point marksmanship got the 49ers back in it. Jobey Thomas (game-high 28 points), the all-time C-USA leader with 294 3-pointers, hit four in a four-minute span to cut the Bulls' lead to 66-65 with 6:23 left. An apparent bad call against USF on a scrum for a loose ball -- Charlotte (10-6, 4-1) was granted a timeout when replays showed Waldon had two hands on the ball -- sent USF coach Seth Greenberg into a frenzy and ignited the Bulls. USF scored six in a row for a 72-65 lead with 3:50 left. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Demon Brown and Curtis Nash brought Charlotte back, and the 49ers went ahead for the first time since leading 24-23 on a three-point play by Cam Stephens (21 points, 10-for-15 shooting) with 37 seconds left. Trailing 76-75, Jackson missed a 14-footer from the baseline, and two Thomas free throws made it 78-75.
With 19 seconds left, Kohn swung the ball to an open Jackson (20 points, 9 rebounds, 0 turnovers), who missed a 3-pointer to tie.
"Altron comes off that flare, he's stone-cold open," Greenberg said. "I can't ask for better execution than that."
Charlotte got the rebound, Thomas was fouled and he made one of his two free throws to push the lead to four with 13.2 seconds left.
Waldon made a 3 from the wing with 4.2 seconds left to make it 79-78. With one second left, USF again fouled Thomas -- C-USA's top free-throw shooter at 90.9 percent. He made both to push Charlotte's lead back to three.
Inbounding under his basket, Greg Brittian hurled a baseball pass the length of the court to Jackson, who caught it in the corner in front of the Bulls bench, turned and launched a potential tying 3-pointer. With the 5,606 in the Sun Dome holding their breath, the off-balance shot didn't hit the rim.
"It comes down to something real simple: making and missing shots," Greenberg said. "It was a good basketball game. Two teams played extremely hard. We did a lot of good things, but you've got to give them credit."
"Instead of getting down, we fought back," Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. "We know how to win games."
USF played without three freshmen forwards suspended for academic violations. Seldom-used Brandon Brigman and redshirt freshman Terrence Leather were suspended for one game, and Kelvin Brown was suspended indefinitely. It is Brown's third suspension and the fourth time he has been benched for disciplinary reasons.
Everything seemed to be falling into place for USF as the game unfolded.
The Bulls closed the first half on a 10-0 run to take a 39-29 lead at intermission, ending with a 3-pointer by Kohn (12 points, 11 assists) and a blocked shot at the buzzer by Mike Bernard.
Kohn opened the second half with two more 3s to stretch the lead to 14, but Charlotte's outside shooting (seven of its final nine field goals were 3-pointers) and USF's 10 second-half turnovers helped tilt the outcome.
Thomas matched the 28 points in his last visit to the Sun Dome two years ago, and he had 20 in Charlotte's 77-74 victory over USF at the C-USA tournament last season.