FRISCO, Texas – The Charlotte men's basketball team opens its account at the 2022 Conference USA Basketball Championship with a Wednesday night bout with Rice. The opening tip from The Star at the Ford Center is slated for 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

Fans can follow Wednesday's game via Statbroadcast live stats, HERE, via the ESPN+ stream, HERE, or on ESPN 730 The Game to listen to Matt Swierad and Charlotte alum Trevor Wilt describing the action, HERE.

LAYUP LINES
- Wednesday's contest between the Niners and Owls will be the 15th all-time meeting between the sides on the collegiate hardwood and the second all-time meeting at the Conference USA Tournament.
- The last time the sides met at the Conference Tournament was in 2016 and was also the last time Charlotte won a postseason game of any kind, downing Rice, 79-69 in the tournament's opening round.
- A win would give Charlotte its most wins since winning 21 ball games in 2012-13 and earning a birth into the 2013 NIT.
- A win would also give Charlotte its first victory in a neutral site contest this season, after falling in its pair of games in the Bahamas and against Wake Forest at the Spectrum Center in Uptown. It would also be Charlotte's seventh total victory away from home, marking the programs most since winning seven in 2014-15 away from Halton Arena.
- As the fourth seed in the East Division, Charlotte will need to win four games in four days in Frisco in order to earn the Conference USA auto-bid into the NCAA Tournament. Doing so would mark Charlotte's first trip to the big dance since 2005 and the Niners first Conference Tournament Crown since winning C-USA in 1999.
- Entering the postseason, Charlotte junior Jahmir Young currently sits in 17th on the programs all-time scoring list with 1,407 career points. Young has scored 20-plus points a league-leading 18 times this season and remains the ONLY player in Conference USA to both play in and score in double figures in every game for his team this year.

SCOUTING THE OWLS
- Rice arrives in Frisco having lost its final two contests of the regular season, on the road at UTEP and at UTSA. As a result, the Owls fell to 7-11 in Conference USA and into the fifth spot in the West Division.
- During the regular season, the Owls were led by its two-headed back court monster of grad transfer Carl Pierre and Travis Evee who each averaged more than 14 points per game. Pierre earned Third-Team All-Conference USA honors with his team-leading 15.4 points per game, while Evee earned All-Conference USA honorable mention after averaging 14.1 points per outing.
- Pierre and Evee are also two of the league's most efficient scorers, knocking down shots at an average of 46.8 percent and 44 percent respectively. From 3-point range their legitimately two of the league's best, with Pierre leading Conference USA with a 42.1 percent shooting clip from distance, while Evee ranks fifth, knocking down 39 percent of his attempts from down town.
- Behind the bench, Rice is led by fifth-year head man Scott Pera who has Rice currently playing some of its best basketball since being hired ahead of the 2017-18 campaign. Prior to his time in as the head man, Pera spent a trio of years on the Rice coaching staff as the program's Associate Head Coach.

SERIES HISTORY
- The Niners and Owls have met 14 times previously, with Rice holding an 8-6 series edge, yet the last time the sides met, the Niners nipped Rice, 67-64, inside Tudor Fieldhouse, led by a pair of 14-point scoring outputs from Austin Butler and Jackson Threadgill.
- The last time Rice and CLT met in the Conference Tournament, Charlotte downed the Owls, 79-69 behind an explosive 27 points from Jon Davis and a dominant, 18 rebounds from Joseph Uchebo.
- A win would give CLT consecutive wins in the all-time series for the first time since 2015-16.

NINERS LEAVE HBURG WITH W TO END REGULAR SEASON
- After leading by as many as 14 points, the Charlotte 49ers left the great state of Mississippi with a 70-67 victory over Southern Miss to close the regular season earn CLT 10 league wins for the second time in the last three seasons.
- Junior Jahmir Young led the Niners in scoring for the 21st time this season, pouring in 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting and concluded his stat-sheet-stuffing performance with seven rebounds and six assists with NO turnovers.
- Senior Austin Butler also reached double-figures, scoring 16 points on an efficient 6-of-10 shooting from the field, including a season-high-tying three makes from 3-point range.
- Despite the sleepy crowd, the 49ers ended their three-game losing skid to the Golden Eagles to head into the conference tournament with wins in four of their last five games to end the regularly scheduled campaign.

CHARLOTTE AT THE C-USA TOURNAMENT
- Dating to the Niners return to Conference USA in 2013, CLT is just 2-5 at the Conference USA Tournament, with its last victory coming over Rice at the 2016 Conference USA Tournament in Birmingham, Alabama.
- Last season marked the first time in the modern era of Conference USA, that the league expanded the tournament to allow all 14 members in. Due to a combination of not making it and COVID-19, head man Ron Sanchez is just 0-1 at the Conference USA Tournament as his fourth season nears its conclusion.
- Wins over Rice and North Texas would advance Charlotte to the C-USA semifinals for the first time since rejoining the league and its first time in any conference tournament semi since advancing to the A-10 semis in 2008.

NINERS DUO RECEIVES C-USA HONORS
- Charlotte Freshman Aly Khalifa earned the Conference USA Freshman of the Year award, along with a spot on the All-Freshman Team, the league announced Monday. The honor is CLT's second Freshman of the Year in the last three seasons, after Jahmir Young did so in 2019-20.
- Young also earned All-League honors, earning a spot on the All-Conference First Team for the second consecutive season, after finishing the season second in scoring (19.8 ppg), 14th in rebounding (6.0 rpg), ninth in assists (3.7 apg) and second in free throw percentage (89.1 percent).
- Khalifa ended the year averaging 7.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, while ranking second on the team and 11th in the league with 3.5 assists per game, along with a league-leading, 2.05 assist/turnover ratio.

OG TRIO FINDS BEST BALL AT THE BEST TIME
- The Charlotte 49ers back court trio of Austin Butler, Clyde Trapp and Jahmir Young each scored in double-figures and pulled in at least six rebounds in Wednesday's four-point victory over MTSU at home.
- The result marked the ninth time the three-headed monster have all scored in double-figures and the first time since the Niners dominant win at Marshall last month.
- The trio is led by do-it-all guard Jahmir Young who leads the the Niners in scoring (19.8 ppg), rebounds (6.0 rpg) and assists (3.7 apg) and led the team in all three categories in Wednesday's win over the Blue Raiders.
- Butler ranks second on the team in scoring and rebounding with 12.5 points per game and 5.8 boards per outing.
- In recent games, Trapp has found a new level, averaging 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists over the Niners last four contests. In those games, Charlotte is 4-1 with a double-figure win at Marshall and a pair of home victories over FIU and Middle Tennessee where it held said opponents under 60 points.

A TALE OF TWO TEAMS
- Charlotte concluded conference play with a 10-8 record, with a 6-3 ledger at home and a mark of 4-5 on the road.
- Where the key trend lies in conference play is in games against C-USA teams in fifth or below in their division, the Niners are 8-1 with the lone loss coming at Old Dominion on the back end of taking on the Monarchs twice in the same week.
- Against teams placed inside the top four of their division, CLT is 2-7, with the lone wins coming in the Niners conference opener at home against UTEP and in Wednesday's home finale vs. MTSU. UTEP finished fourth in the West Division.
- In its 10 league wins, Charlotte's defense is holding opponents to just 63.1 points per game, while giving up more than 70 just once. In losses CLT is giving up 77.3 points per outing and held just one opponent to under 70 points in those games, with that number coming against North Texas in a 65-51 defeat.

UP NEXT
A Charlotte win would advance the 49ers to the tournament's quarterfinal round to take on North Texas on Thursday evening. The opening tip for that potential contest is slated for 6:30 p.m. ET on Stadium.