Observations from St. Louis

 

ST. LOUIS – Observations from Charlotte’s 76-58 loss against Saint Louis:

Saturday was the 49ers’ third blowout loss on the road in the Atlantic 10 this season. But the 49ers showed an ability to bounce back in the other two, following a 20-point loss at Richmond with a victory against Xavier and a 28-pointer at George Washington with a triumph over UMass.

Charlotte gets eight days to think about this one before its next game, Feb. 24 against Temple at Halton Arena.

“There’s no excuses from here on out,” said point guard Pierria Henry, who had 15 points against the Billikens. “We can’t blame the refs, can’t blame the coaches, can’t blame each other. We’ve each got to look in the mirror and look at ourselves. We’ve got to get back in the gym and work on our craft and what we can do to perfect it. We should come back as a unit and it’ll be a different story.”

Charlotte (18-7, 6-5) has five games left in the regular season. If you include the upcoming Temple game, the 49ers are ready to conclude a tough-five game stretch in which they’re 2-2 to this point (victories against UMass and Butler, losses against Temple and Saint Louis).

After the Owls game, the regular season concludes with road games at Duquesne and St. Bonaventure and home games against Saint Joseph’s and Dayton, all second-division teams.

-- Chris Braswell’s inconsistent season continued. Braswell scored four points on 1 of 7 shooting and had four rebounds in 22 minutes. But Braswell was pretty effective in other phases of the game, with three assists and two blocks (he also turned it over three times).

-- Saint Louis came into the game allowing a league-low 57.7 points per game. The 49ers didn’t do much to change that.

-- Tempted to stay out here until Tuesday, when the Billikens host VCU. That should be a great one.

-- Both teams started the game with different offensive philosophies. Charlotte went to the rim hard and made five of its first six shots. Saint Louis relied on the 3-pointer,with Rob Loe putting up four of them before the half was over (he made one). Saint Louis later balanced its attack and led by nine at halftime.

-- Saint Louis coach Jim Crews has done a good job since taking over for Rick Majerus, who died in December. Crews still has the “interim” tag before his name, but he could have that removed it the Billikens continue to play at the level they have.

-- Two of the best names in the Atlantic 10 faced off in the backcourt: Charlotte’s Pierria Henry against Saint Louis’s Jordair Jett.

-- Braswell wore electric green socks with green polka dots. He was almost shown up by Saint Louis’s Cody Ellis, whose hair was dyed blue.

-- Henry appeared to come down awkwardly on his ankle after making a jumper midway through the first half. Henry limped to the bench, but quickly returned to the game. He said after the game he’s OK.