No amount of free throws was going to bail out Charlotte against St. Louis on Friday.
In fact, just one day after the 49ers’ stay in Brooklyn was extended by hitting eight shots from the charity stripe in the final 4.7 seconds of the game against Richmond, the Billikens held Charlotte in check en route to a 72-55 win in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
St. Louis, which finished the season ranked No. 16 in the country, looked like a rested team after earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament. The Billikens jumped on Charlotte early thanks to 11 first-half points from Dwayne Evans.
“I thought at the start of the game we got out to a good start,” St. Louis head coach Jim Crews said. “Our defense generated a lot of good things for us from an offensive standpoint in the first 10-12 minutes.”
Evans led all scorers with 25 points and was all but automatic from the field, hitting eight of his nine shots.
“We have a bunch of guys who are really good 3-point shooters so it leaves the inside open,” Evans said. “We played in-out. We have some of the best passers in America, even I didn’t see some of them coming.”
Even when Charlotte tried to make a game out of it, St. Louis flexed its muscle and crushed the 49ers’ hopes.
After Chris Braswell (20 Points) hit two free throws to cut St. Louis’ lead to three with 13:00 to go in the first half, Billikens forward Cody Ellis answered right back by converting a four-point play after he drilled a trey with 12:51 to play.
Braswell again tried valiantly to bring the 49ers back later on in the first half. After Charlotte forward Ivan Benkovic hit a three, Braswell followed immediately with one of his own, again cutting the lead to three, St. Louis went on a 13-0 run fueled by Mike McCall Jr.
“We had another little spurt that was really able to help us,” Crews said. “I think our guys have done a tremendous job of really having a good mentality in terms of ‘hey , we’re going to make mistakes but let’s go out and make the next play.’ They don’t waste too many possessions.”
St. Louis’ defense played a major factor in the win. The Billikens forced Charlotte to commit 20 turnovers, including 13 in the first half alone which led to 16 St. Louis points.
The Billikens also held Pierria Henry, who scored a first-round high 28 points on Thursday, to just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting. Henry, who spent what seemed like an eternity on the foul line on Thursday, took just three free throws, missing two.
“Credit to [St. Louis],” Charlotte head coach Alan Major said. “I thought they came out and did a good job of disrupting us. We weren’t quite ourselves today and got us out of character early in the game.”
Henry was still a factor however, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out five assists.
A scary moment came with 3:48 to play after Henry collided with St. Louis guard Jordair Jett near mid-court and went down immediately. Henry appeared to take a blow to the throat and although he walked off the court, he was still visibly shaken up and was having trouble breathing before he went back into the locker room.
St. Louis will face the winner of the Butler-LaSalle contest in the conference semifinals on Saturday afternoon.
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com