Charlotte 89, Duquesne 82

3/2/2008 3:26 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -Leemire Goldwire scored 21 points as Charlotte held off a second-half rally to beat Duquesne 89-82 in an Atlantic 10 game Sunday.

Lamont Mack had 19 points, Charlie Coley 16 and Ian Andersen 13 for the 49ers (16-12, 7-7), who won their second straight at home.

Reggie Jackson scored 17 points, Kojo Mensah and Bill Clark had 14 each and Gary Tucker 10 for the Dukes (16-11, 6-8), who lost their fourth consecutive game.

Charlotte led by as many as 12 points in the second half, the last at 65-53 on two Phil Jones free throws with 10:06 left, but Duquesne whittled the 49ers lead down to 82-80 on Jackson's 3-pointer with 1:39 remaining.

Mack then followed a missed dunk with a layup to push Charlotte's lead back to four points, and the 49ers closed out the game by hitting 5-of-8 from the free throw line over the final minute.

The Dukes struggled to find their shot in the first half, hitting just 5-of-19 from the field in the first 13 minutes. That helped Charlotte bolt to a 12-point lead, going up 25-13 on a Coley dunk with 7:07 remaining.

But Duquesne found its range in the closing minutes of the half, hitting 7-of-8 - including 3-for-3 on 3-pointers - during a 15-2 run to pull back into contention. Tucker's 3-pointer with 4:09 left put the Dukes up 28-27, their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

The sides then swapped the lead three times and tied the score twice before Goldwire hit a pair of free throws with 44.3 seconds left to give the 49ers a 36-34 lead at the break.