CHARLOTTE – In just its second overtime game of the season, WKU Hilltopper Basketball dropped a road game to the Charlotte 49ers on Thursday night, falling in overtime 68-64. The Hilltoppers scored the final eight points of regulation and came up with a huge defensive stop to force overtime, but were unable to convert baskets in the extra period.
"The one stat that matters at the end of the game is W and L; you can chop it up any way you want to chop it up," said head coach Rick Stansbury. "The one thing I can say about our guys tonight, without looking back on it and seeing any film, I think we gave up one backdoor basket all night long. That's a huge stat. In the first game, we said they had 32 points scored within the last 10 seconds of the shot clock. I don't know how many came within that again, but [Aly] Khalifa made probably four of his 3's at 10 seconds and under. Those two in overtime were both end-of-shot-clock baskets. But again, there isn't but one stat that matters and that's W and L and they found a way to beat us in 45 minutes."
While WKU scored the first points of the game, Charlotte immediately had an answer with seven straight points. The Hilltoppers responded with six of their own to take a short-lived 8-7 lead at the 14:30 mark.
It was a back-and-forth game from there until there were just over two and a half minutes left in the period. The 49ers managed to score the final seven points of the game, taking a 28-all ball game at 2:39 to 35-28 lead by halftime.
While Charlotte led for 14:56 of the first half, there were seven lead changes and two ties in the opening 20 minutes alone.
Jamarion Sharp paced the Hilltoppers with six points and seven boards by the break.
Out of halftime, Charlotte didn't let up, pushing its lead as high as 10 points twice. However, WKU was not going to go down without a fight.
Out of the Hilltoppers' first 24 points of the second half, Dontaie Allen scored 17 of those. He netted 3 after 3 until WKU was able to make one final push.
Over the final four minutes of regulation, the Hilltoppers scored eight points, shutting out Charlotte. One final attempt from the 49ers to win in regulation was denied by a massive Sharp block.
Between the 4:35 mark in regulation to the 1:45 mark in overtime, Charlotte did not make a single field goal or score a single point, missing 10 straight attempts.
After a stalemate for the first two minutes of overtime, Dayvion McKnight scored to put the Tops up by two.
The 49ers' Aly Khalifa broke the nearly eight-minute scoring drought for Charlotte, nailing a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:45 on the game clock. He would hit another at the :53 mark to put Charlotte up 68-64, resulting in the Hilltopper loss.
Allen tied for the most points across all scorers with 24. He netted 6 of 11 long balls in 42 minutes of action. He also pulled down a career-high nine boards. Sharp grabbed 10 rebounds and scored eight points. He also blocked four shots.
Khalifa had 24 points in total for Charlotte with 18 of those coming beyond the arc. The center also had eight rebounds.
WKU will now get a second chance against the Rice Owls. The Hilltoppers will play in Houston on Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT in an ESPN+ game.
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