Charlotte Beats Youngstown State 100-80

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Charlotte guard DiJuan Harris has been taking some ribbing from his teammates this season over his scoring ability, or the lack of it.

They won't be making any cracks now, after Harris scored a career-high 20 points in the 49ers' 100-80 win over Youngstown State on Sunday.

RaShan Coleman added 16 points and Charlie Coley III had 13 points and 13 rebounds for Charlotte (4-6), which led by as many as 28 points en route to its third consecutive win.

Phil Jones had 13 points and Lamont Mack and Ian Andersen scored 11 each for the 49ers, who broke the 100-point mark in a game for the first time since a 103-101, triple-overtime loss to then-No. 22 Alabama on Dec. 4, 2004.

"We had a lot of positive things happen going into the (holiday) break," Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. "We feel like we have a lot of different guys who can score in double figures, and that's a balance I'd like for us to continue to have."

Vytas Sulskis hit five 3-pointers and scored 20 points for the Penguins (2-8), who lost for the sixth time in their last seven games. Kelvin Bright had 16 points and Sirlester Martin 14.

Harris, who was averaging 7.8 points and 5.2 assists this season coming into the game, was nearly perfect Sunday. He was 5 of 5 from the field - including 2 of 2 on 3-pointers, but missed just 2 of 10 free throws. Harris and added eight assists.

"My teammates get on me about passing up shots all the time," said Harris, who bettered his former career high of 15 points set against Cal State Fullerton earlier this season. "I wanted to be more aggressive than normal, and they were giving me a lot of opportunities to shoot the ball. I just had to have the confidence in myself to make the shot.

"I'm not too big on stats and all that - the only one I particularly look at is turnovers, and I'm not too concerned about points. Tonight, I had a lot of opportunities to make shots and I took advantage of it and made some open shots."

It didn't hurt that Harris' teammates were making shots, as well.

The 49ers shot 67.9 percent from the field in the first half (19 of 28), including 6 of 11 on 3-pointers to take command, then extended their lead to 28 points twice in the second half - the last time at 81-53 on Andersen's 3-pointer with 10:56 left.

However, Youngstown State followed that with an 11-0 run, capped by back-to-back Sulskis 3-pointers to cut Charlotte's lead to 81-64 with 8:42 left. But Andersen hit another 3-pointer 45 seconds later to push the 49ers' lead back to 20 points, and the Penguins couldn't pull closer than 18 the rest of the way.

"We haven't had too many games where we've been up by large margins," Harris said. "They cut it down, but we stepped back on the gas ... we handled it a whole lot better tonight than we did against Mississippi State (when the 49ers led by 24 points in the second half before winning by six)."

Charlotte raced out to a 13-point lead in the opening four minutes behind 13 points by Harris and 11 by Coleman. The 49ers hit six of their first eight shots, with a Coleman 3-pointer and An'Juan Wilderness' free throw giving them a 16-3 margin with 16:33 left.

The Penguins twice pulled back under double digits, the last at 31-25 on Blocker's 3-pointer with 7:45 left in the first. But Harris nailed his second 3-pointer of the half, followed by Mack's jumper, to push the 49ers' lead back to 36-25.

Charlotte closed out the half with an 18-8 run from there, capped by Coleman's fast-break dunk with 33 seconds remaining to take a 54-34 lead at halftime.

"They shot very, very well - a whole lot better than they've shot all year," Youngstown State coach Jerry Slocum said. "We did a little bit better job in the second half ... but it's hard to dig out of that deep of a hole."

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