Eagles look to cool down red-hot 49ers

By Gary McCann - gmccann@heraldonline.com

When you coach a team that has trouble scoring a lot of points, and it is facing a team that doesn't seem to have any issue finding the bucket, there is reason to worry.

Winthrop (5-4) hosts Charlotte (8-1) at 4 p.m. today at the Winthrop Coliseum. The Eagles are averaging 60.8 points and have scored fewer than 50 points five times. The 49ers are averaging 82.7 points, have gone over 80 seven times and have posted 87, 94 and 95 in the last three games.

Winthrop coach Randy Peele hasn't been this worried since the Eagles played and lost to Clemson 102-66.

“Clemson is probably better (than Charlotte) right now,” Peele said, “but Charlotte is good. I'm really concerned when we play a team like this, because we're going to have to score.

“Other than Clemson, we've been able to keep teams in check. Other than Clemson, this is going to be our biggest defensive challenge.”

Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz is using 10 players at least 10 minutes per game. The 49ers shoot 45 percent overall, 33 percent on 3-pointers, beat opponents by six on the boards and outscore opponents by seven a game at the free-throw line.

The 49ers are balanced, with an inside and outside presence, and play like anything but a team picked to finish in the second division of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

“They've got so many guys who can score,” Peele said.

This is just the second meeting of two teams less than 40 miles apart. The 49ers won 70-53 at home last season, but Lutz has a few more weapons than last year.

The biggest is 6-foot-6, 245-pound junior Shamari Spears, who played two seasons at Boston College before transferring closer to his Salisbury, N.C., home. He is averaging 18.5 points and five rebounds. Those numbers increase to 21.2 and 5.8 on the road.

“He's the difference,” Peele said. “He's a presence inside. He's as wide as a pickup truck.”

Peele isn't sure which of his interior players would best match up with Spears, but was leaning toward 6-9, 235-pound Andy Buechert. George Valentine, at 6-8 and 240 pounds, would have been a good choice, but he is out for the year with a broken wrist.

Buchert was the difference in Wednesday's win at USC Upstate when he throttled 7-foot-3 Nick Schneiders in the final eight minutes.

Peele says Buechert and point guard Reggie Middleton have been the difference in the team's three-game winning streak.

“Andy is so much more aggressive,” Peele said. “He's getting tough rebounds in a crowd and getting to the line.”

But Spears is more skilled and mobile than Schneiders.

Lutz said earlier in the year, before the 49ers had played their first game, that Spears would be “our No. 1 scoring option.”

And 6-8 freshman Chris Braswell, who originally committed to Georgetown before deciding to spend a year in prep school and reopening his recruitment, has been good, too.

He's averaging 9.2 points, 9.6 rebounds.

There's an outside presence with the 49ers, too, with junior college guard Derrio Green, who starts, and freshman reserve Shamarr Bowden. Of their 142 field goal attempts, 122 have been 3-pointers. Of Bowden's 66 shots, 63 have come from behind the arc.

Dijuan Harris, the 5-9 point guard who had 14 points and 10 assists against the Eagles last year, also will get much of Winthrop's attention. Peele knows how good he is, because he wanted to sign him.

The 49ers like to push the pace, and Harris is the leader.

“We don't have them defended until he gives the ball up,” Peele said. “He's the straw that stirs the drink.”

Harris averages 10.4 points, almost six assists and leads the team in getting to the free-throw line (55 attempts). He has taken just nine 3-pointers. Getting to the rim is his game.

Middleton has been coming on the past four games, averaging 13.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, two assists and shooting 50 percent from the floor. He has hit seven of his last 12 3-pointers and gotten to the line 14 times, making 11.

“Andy and certainly Reggie have been the biggest difference for us lately,” Peele said.

“Reggie is playing with a lot of confidence.”

After today, the Eagles hit the road for a game at Cincinnati on Tuesday and N.C. State on Dec. 29. After a holiday break, the Eagles go to Coastal Carolina on Jan. 2 and Charleston Southern on Jan. 4.