Local Sports

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- An injury to one of Charlotte's key players gave guard Charles Dewhurst his first start of the season.

Dewhurst made it pay off for the 49ers (5-6), scoring a career-high 13 points in the second half as Charlotte overcame a sluggish start to beat Long Island 79-68 on Tuesday night.

Dewhurst, a sophomore, got the start in place of An'Juan Wilderness, who is expected to miss at least two weeks after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot.

However, Dewhurst struggled in the first half, attempting no shots and pulling down just one rebound. The 49ers shot just 30.6 percent from the field (11 of 36), and were outrebounded 28-21 in

the half.

The 49ers led by as many as 17 points in the second half in winning their fourth straight.

Lamont Mack added 15 points for Charlotte, while Charlie Coley had 14, DiJuan Harris had 13 points and 10 assists and RaShad Coleman had 11 points.

Kyle Johnson scored 26 points and Jaytornah Wisseh added 21 for the Blackbirds (4-7), who shot just 35.6 percent (21 of 59) in losing their second consecutive game.

"We were a little sluggish coming off our break," said 49ers coach Bobby Lutz, who gave his players five days off for the Christmas holiday. "Even though we worked really hard in practice,

I could tell we weren't quite as sharp. But in the second half, we were terrific offensively."

With the score tied at 31 two minutes into the second half, Dewhurst drove the lane for a layup with 17:35 left to put the 49ers ahead. That kicked off a 22-5 run that saw Charlotte hit eight of its first nine shots.

Dewhurst then capped the run by hitting 5-of-6 from the free throw line, the last coming with 11:33 remaining, to put Charlotte ahead 53-36, its biggest lead of the game.

"We played really sluggish in the first half and got outrebounded a bunch," Dewhurst said. "But when we started crashing the boards, that made our offense go."

In the second half, the 49ers shot 61.5 percent (16 of 26), and outrebounded Long Island 15-13. While the Blackbirds outrebounded Charlotte 41-36 for the game, they also committed 17 turnovers.

"Their size and defensive intensity really got to us, and we got a little sloppy in the second half," Long Island coach Jim Ferry said. "We made some adjustments to come back ... but having

to play in transition a lot, we couldn't get good shots, turned the ball over and just forced things a lot."

The Blackbirds managed to pull within nine points, at 74-65, late in the game on Julian Boyd's tip-in with 1:02 left, but Harris hit 3-of-4 free throws and Dewhurst added a pair to push the 49ers'

lead back into double digits.

"We knew we were really sluggish," said Harris, who had double figures in assists for the third time this season. "Once we got the rust off, we really took it to them."

Long Island led by five points three times in the first seven minutes of the first half, the last at 12-7 on a pair of Aurimas Adomaitis free throws with 13:19 left.

However, Charlotte responded with a 13-2 run. Ian Anderson kicked off the run with a 3-pointer with 12:34 left, and his second 3-pointer with 8:50 remaining put the 49ers ahead 20-14.

Charlotte went cold after that, missing its next 12 shots and allowing the Blackbirds to pull back into contention. The 49ers eventually regained the lead at 22-20 on Wisseh's 3-pointer with

4:05 left.

That set up a furious final 3 minutes, in which the lead changed three times. The 49ers last pulled ahead on Mack's 3-pointer with 1:11 left, but Boyd's layup with 38 seconds remaining tied the

score at 27 at the break.