CHARLOTTE —  Ben Bradford’s dunk wasn’t enough; he wanted more.

The guard snapped from a quick hang on the Halton Arena rim to a defensive stance, intercepted Shaw’s inbound play and dished it to Damoni Harrison for a second dunk in a matter of seconds to lead Charlotte Men’s Basketball’s final run to close out an 83-79 win over the Bears on Sunday.

It was part of a 10-for-11 field-goal stretch that aided the 49ers’ 13-4 run to pull away late.

“You look around the country, and so many of these games have gone the other way — it’s happened all year,” head coach Aaron Fearne said. “We’re working really hard to come together as a team. It’s not something that happens easily in the battles of competition, which add more pressure.

“We found a way to get across the line; onto the next challenge.”

It was a communal effort from the start for Charlotte.

Arden Conyers hit a pair of 3-pointers in his first four minutes on the floor in the first half to aid the offense’s effort. Anton Bonke did the same on the other end with a pair of blocks in the first six minutes of the game.

The big man did plenty for the offense, too, with a 6-for-6 streak to start his team-high 17-point output that included 13 rebounds — his fourth double-double effort in six games.

“I ask a lot out of [Anton],” Fearne said. “He’s played 25 games of 10 or more minutes in his entire life. We have guys who have played 500. What he’s doing is super impressive. I’m really proud of him because he’s worked his butt off. He’s earned everything because he puts the work in. He’ll just keep getting better — he’s still just a shell of what he could be, and that’s an exciting thing for our program.”

Shaw’s outside shooting kept the game tight.

The Bears hit 7-for-14 from outside in the first half to secure a 40-39 lead. They added another four makes in the second half, including Isaiah Buckley’s with 35 seconds left to close a 7-0 run that saw Charlotte’s lead shrink to 79-77.

Bradford contributed a final pair of free throws just 15 seconds after Harrison did the same to finalize the winning margin. The pair combined for 23 points in their first start alongside one another as Dezayne Mingo added another 13 of his own to help the starting backcourt’s standout effort.

“We have to go through experiences like this together; it’s going to take time,” Fearne said. “As the game went on in the second half, I could feel the guys fighting instead of us having to ask them to fight, and that’s awesome to see. That’s what you want — you want a player-driven team that drives winning behaviors and demands more from each other.”

Golden Outputs

Bonke’s 17 points represented a career high to lead Charlotte’s scoring effort. His 13 rebounds fell one shy of tying a career-best mark as well. He blocked a pair of shots, too, and has at least two swats in four of the team’s last five games as part of a team-high 13 this season.

Mingo and Bradford tied for second in the scoring department behind the big man with 13 apiece. It’s the sixth consecutive game the latter has reached double figures to open the campaign, and the fifth in six games for the former.

On top of his scoring, Bradford added a career-high four steals.

Charlotte shot a season-high 73.9% from the free-throw line and outrebounded its sixth consecutive opponent to open the season — a 37-22 margin on Sunday.

Up Next

Charlotte heads to Disney to take on the ESPN Events Invitational. It’ll meet Illinois State at 1:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2 before the winner of the matchup faces either Furman or Richmond on Friday.