Charlotte, NC – The Niners fell short of its quest for a statement victory Friday night at the Spectrum Center as Charlotte fell to Liberty, 71-59.
Charlotte had a clear game plan coming into the contest. Combat Liberty’s quickness with the size and strength of 6’11 center Dishon Jackson. However, Liberty rose to the challenge and held Jackson to 7 points on 3-8 shooting from the post.
“I just don’t think we finished great,” said Niners Head Coach Aaron Fearne. “We got [the ball] inside – it was very physical one-on-one but that’s what you’ve got to deal with when you’re a big man. We just didn’t stay quite poised enough to the very last second of the shot”.
As Charlotte struggled to execute offensively, Liberty’s chemistry and ability to shoot the ball proved too much for Charlotte to overcome. Liberty lead by as many as 20 points in the game and kept the Niners at arm’s length each time they made a push to get back into the contest.
“We knew it would be a challenge with [Liberty’s] experienced style of game,” said Fearne. “They’re smaller than us and they can really stretch us out. They’ve been together for so long and they’re so far advanced than we are right now with their experience together.”
Liberty Head Coach Ritchie McKay had high praise for Coach Fearne during the post game press conference. “They are going to be a really good basketball team,” said McKay. They defend, they’re really well-coached and they have a lot of good pieces.”
Those pieces include a nucleus featuring a burgeoning young point guard in Nik Graves, a formidable post presence in Dishon Jackson and wing Igor Milicic Jr. The three combined for 32 of the team’s 59 points. Throw in the amount of depth this team has and now you have a formula for winning. Though the result wasn’t what Fearne may have hoped for, there were positive moments that can used going into Wednesday night’s matchup against Utah Valley.
“I walked into the locker room tonight extremely encouraged by a number of things we did,” said Fearne. “There was good energy, our physicality went up in the second half. The locker room was disappointed but we’ll learn so much from that [game].”
