By Will Graves
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. ó Charlotte guard Derrio Green let the 3-pointer fly just before the halftime buzzer against No. 20 Louisville on Saturday and held his right hand in the air.
When the ball swished through the net for Green’s fourth 3-pointer of the half, the sophomore turned and waved three fingers at the stunned Freedom Hall crowd.
The party was just getting started for the upstart 49ers.
Green finished with a career-high 20 points as Charlotte handed injury-depleted Louisville its worst home loss under Rick Pitino with a stunningly easy 87-65 win.
“We knew we had to stay on them early; once we hit some shots it just started rolling,” Green said. “We wanted to keep the momentum and we did.”
Did they ever.
Freshman forward Chris Braswell added 21 points and 14 rebounds, while Shamarr Bowden had 17 points for the hot-shooting 49ers (6-1). Shamari Spears (Salisbury) had nine points and nine rebounds, and freshman K.J. Sherrill (West Rowan) finished with two points and three rebounds.
Charlotte took control early and had little trouble fending off a pair of mild Louisville runs in the second half.
“We are always the underdog when we come in here,” Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. “We’ve always shot the ball well when we come in here, and our guys can shoot.”
They proved it during a scintillating first half in which Green and Bowden combined to knock down seven 3-pointers to help the 49ers build a 47-32 halftime lead.
The Cardinals (5-2) simply had no answer. Louisville played without injured guards Peyton Siva, Preston Knowles and Jerry Smith, and the 49ers made Louisville pay by dominating on the perimeter.
“That was a bitter pill to swallow,” Pitino said. “The great equalizer was the 3-point shot. They were making some long ones, but they do that all the time. They were just better than we were tonight.
Samardo Samuels led Louisville with 14 points and Mike Marra scored 11, but the Cardinals looked flat and unorganized while Pitino experimented with his lineup looking for some consistency.
“We had a very difficult time picking up the scouting report,” Pitino said. “We paid huge consequences.”
Charlotte made 10 of 24 3-pointers and outrebounded Louisville 49-35.
The Cardinals never got closer than 14 in the final 20 minutes as the 49ers hardly looked like the team that lost to Duke by 42 points last month.
“It’s a great win for us,” Braswell said. “When we played Duke and lost, we got a feel of how to play in a hostile environment. Now we are kind of getting a feeling for each other and playing with each other.”
The victory was Charlotte’s first over a ranked team since knocking off Xavier last season and Louisville’s worst home defeat since losing to the 49ers by 34 in February of 2001, back when both teams were in Conference USA.
Pitino said before the game he was concerned about slowing down Spears, but the junior forward was held 12 points under his average coming in.
Green, Bowden and Braswell made sure it didn’t matter.