East Carolina is no power in Conference USA, but Charlotte's win over them is a Red Line Upset nonetheless. In what was probably the most difficult game for Charlotte so far, they were able to make the short trip up to Davidson and get a win over their rivals.

On paper, it looked as if the Chippewas did not pose much of a threat to give Charlotte their first defeat. Keno Davis has CMU aimed in the right direction, but there is work to be done. It would have been nice if Trey Zeigler was still around for Central, but he bolted after his father was fired in the offseason.

I had only been to one game last year at Halton Arena and that was the rivalry game the 49ers had with Davidson. I had enjoyed the warring student sections in that game and was pleased to see that while this was no rivalry, the Charlotte students still provided a loud and fun atmosphere.



You could tell from the early going that Charlotte has relied on its defense to earn that clean record. After an early period of each team feeling each other out, the 49ers put the clamps down on CMU and made them earn most of their points. The 49ers did not seem to be the best shooting team, but they were able to establish a 21-13 advantage.

Central Michigan was able to avoid an early rout by using the great equalizer of the three-point shot. Since the Chips could not get much inside, they resorted to some long-range bombs that started to fall. John Simons, Kyle Randall and Blake Hibbitts were able to help tie it at 27. Charlotte stopped the run at the end of the half by closing out the final 90 seconds with the final 4 points.

Once halftime hit, I checked my phone and looked at my Twitter feed. Surprisingly, I saw TMM8 vet Gary Moore was commenting on the same game. I found out which section he was in and walked over to introduce myself. After reading Gary's articles all of last year and continuing into this year where he has made the move to South Carolina for a new job, I knew he was very knowledgeable of the college game. It is always great to get someone else's perspective of a game, so I stuck around for the second half where we chatted up several topics and I sat amazed at how he could live tweet while simultaneously keep full attention on the action.

Gary also pointed out how tough the Charlotte defense was being and they kept up the pressure starting off the second half. The 49ers were forcing an abundance of CMU turnovers and converting them into fast-break points.

With the lead up to 13 for Charlotte, a little bit of frustration started to settle in for CMU. Coach Davis was laying into the refs and in turn the Charlotte fans were laying into Coach Davis. After a scuffle for a loose ball, tempers flared and Charlotte's Pierria Henry ended up getting ejected. Davis also ended up getting a technical in the confusion, but stayed in the game. The crowd got irate with him every time he stormed over to the officials during the long break while they were reviewing the altercation.

The long delay did serve to stop the defensive momentum for Charlotte as CMU was able to put some points on the board once play started up again. The 49ers kept answering each small run with one of their own and even threw in a big time alley-oop dunk from Demario Mayfield.



Central Michigan had one last push when they nailed a few more threes.. A Hibbitts superhoop had the lead down to six, but consecutive three-pointers from Victor Nickerson and Denzel Ingram shut the door on the comeback.

While Charlotte does have its flaws with its lack of consistent outside shooting, they have a extremely solid defense to make up for it. All that matters in the end is that the team kept its 0 in the loss column. It may always end in a loss, but Charlotte is doing everything they can to prevent that first one from happening.

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