SAN ANTONIO — Jon Davis scored 17 points, including a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer, to lift Charlotte to a 76-75 victory at UTSA on Thursday night at the Convocation Center. The game featured 11 ties and 28 lead changes.
Jeff Beverly finished with 14 points to lead the Roadrunners (12-18, 7-10 C-USA), while Giovanni De Nicolao added a dozen and Gino Littles chipped in with 11 points. UTSA shot 41.4 percent and got 26 points from its bench.
Meanwhile, Davis and Braxton Ogbueze each had 17 points to pace the 49ers (13-15, 7-10 C-USA), who shot 54.9 percent and finished with 10 triples. Charlotte came into the contest as the best free-throw shooting team in the conference but hit just 10 of its 22 attempts at the charity stripe.
UTSA led 70-62 with three minutes to play, but Charlotte went on a quick 9-0 run to pull ahead 71-70 with just 64 seconds on the clock. De Nicolao drove in for a layup with 38 ticks left to regain the lead for the Roadrunners and then the freshman came up with a big steal and assist to George Willborn III, whose dunk pushed the advantage to 74-71 with eight seconds on the clock.
The Roadrunners fouled Davis, who came into the night as an 81.9 percent free-throw shooter that had gone 2-for-10 at the charity stripe in the contest, and sank both freebies to pull within 74-73.
The 49ers fouled on the inbound pass and a Beverly free throw made it 75-73, but Davis dribbled within five feet of the 3-point line and buried the game-winner as the clock expired.
The second half mirrored the first half with back-and-forth scoring until UTSA went on a 13-1 run for a 64-57 lead with 6:22 to play.
Beverly started the spurt with a three-point play before Lucas O'Brien, who also finished with nine rebounds, Willborn III and Beverly combined to score the team's next six points at the free-throw line. Beverly and Allen added jumpers to close the spurt, which set up the dramatic final minutes.
A close first half featured seven ties, 17 lead changes and ended with De Nicolao's basket to give the home squad a 39-38 advantage.
UTSA started the half on fire from behind the arc, where it hit six of its first eight attempts. O'Brien and Allen each hit treys in the early minutes, but the 49ers broke an 11-all tie with six straight points for the largest lead for either team in the half.
Austin Karrer, who finished with a career-high eight points, ended four-minute scoring drought for the Roadrunners with a 3-pointer and Littles buried back-to-back triples to tie the game at 20. Ogbueze and De Nicolao traded 3-pointers to knot the game again at 23 and neither team led by more than two points over the final seven minutes.
The lead changed hands 14 times over that stretch, with the final change coming on De Nicolao's drive and bucket with just two seconds left in the half for the slim cushion at intermission.
UTSA will close the regular-season at 3 p.m. on Saturday when it hosts Old Dominion (19-10, 12-5 C-USA) at the Convocation Center. The Roadrunners will honor seniors J.R. Harris and O'Brien before the contest.
