Welcome to the weekly sports roundup in the greater Charlotte area presented by The Sports Chief. Every Sunday, let The Chief be the one to catch you up on all the latest sports happenings in and around the Charlotte, NC area. We take a look at professional sports, as well as semi-professional, college, and high school. If you like what we’re doing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter at @thesportschief where you’ll be notified of all our latest postings, and visit our website at www.thesportschief.com.

Professional

Carolina Panthers

Still not much going on in Panthers country other than speculation, mainly revolving around who will be the starting quarterback next season. It was learned this week that Carolina was indeed in the chase for Matthew Stafford, who ended up being traded from Detroit to Los Angeles. Before that trade was completed, the Panthers had offered the Lions a trade that included the number eight overall pick in this year’s upcoming draft, alongside with Teddy Bridgewater. I found that interesting, because it speaks to the team’s willingness to trade Bridgewater and move on at the position.

Though that trade didn’t happen, there’s still a good possibility another deal gets completed before the season starts that would send Bridgewater to another team. So many options are out there for the Panthers. However, they should be patient and not make a move just to make a move. If they can’t land a trade for a new quarterback before the season starts, they always have the draft to work with. The Panthers have to have their eye on hometown kid Sam Howell out of UNC. He won’t be available in this year’s draft, but will very likely be the top rated quarterback in the 2022 draft. Carolina is much more than just a quarterback away from seriously competing, so patience is key here. Suffering through another lackluster season isn’t what fans want, but focusing on other areas of need in this year’s draft such as offensive line will go toward building a long-term winner. Especially if they could somehow land Howell in next year’s draft.

Charlotte Hornets

With a total of three games this week, you can consider it a successful week for the Hornets. The James Harden-less Rockets came to town on Monday and couldn’t put up much of a fight against the young Hornets roster. And speaking of the team’s youth, rookie Lamelo Ball had a strong game with 24 points and 10 assists. The assists that he can rack up are what I really like and when he shoots the way he did in that one (7 three pointers), he is a very good player. The final score was 119-94.

The Hornets traveled to Memphis on Wednesday and dropped the mid-week contest. To be honest it was a very poor defensive performance, to which coach James Borrego said the team wasn’t focused like they should have been on that end of the floor. Charlotte gave up a total of 130 points to their 114. Offensive-wise the team has been very solid lately, but defensively is where they tend to slip a lot and this was the case Wednesday. Rozier had a nice game, scoring 34 points, but it wasn’t even his best game of the week.

Friday night saw another Hornets win and Terry Rozier’s best game of the week. He had 41 of the Hornets’ 120 points, in route to a 120-114 win over the struggling Minnesota Timberwolves. Lamelo Ball scored 20 in this game, with 11 rebounds, and Cody Zeller added 17 points of his own. Winning two games this week was good enough to push the Hornets up to the East’s 6th spot, just five games behind the conference-leading 76ers. Charlotte is back in action tonight in the Spectrum Center against the San Antonio Spurs.

College Basketball

Charlotte 49ers

Unfortunately, the 49ers are trending in the wrong direction lately. Like I’ve stated before, they just couldn’t get away from splitting every weekend series and maintaining a .500 record. But now they’ve lost four games in a row, pushing their overall record to 9-11 and their conference record to 5-7. Last weekend it was Middle Tennessee who got the best of them, and this weekend it was Old Dominion who swept the weekend series. Friday’s contest was a tight one, and even needed overtime to settle the score. But the Monarchs bested the 49ers by two points. I have to shoutout yet another great game from Charlotte’s Jahmir Young, who had 26 points on the night. He has been absolutely incredible all season long.

With the rematch moving across the northern border into Norfolk, Virginia, the 49ers came out flat. At halftime they only had 14 points and ended the game with just 45. For the first time in what seems like forever, Jahmir Young didn’t lead the team in scoring. He still had double-figures with 10, but Jhery Matos led the team with 11. Three players for the Monarchs ended up in double-figures and the team ended up with 64 points. Coming off four straight losses, including a 19-point loss, is going to be tough for Charlotte to bounce back from, especially at this point in the season. But they will try to do just that next weekend against UTSA, who is 8-6 in conference play.

Davidson Wildcats

Davidson basketball is still on a Covid-related pause until further notice. The Wildcats haven’t played a game since their 69-60 win over UMass on January 24. Among the games that have been postponed are St. Bonaventure, Fordham, VCU, Rhode Island, and Duquesne. Davidson stands at 10-5 overall and 6-2 in the conference.

Appalachian State Mountaineers

App State is in the same situation as Davidson, with two games against Georgia State postponed and two games against Coastal Carolina canceled. The Mountaineers are 12-7 overall and 6-4 within the Sun Belt.

High School

After a Covid-related pause that lasted several weeks, we finally welcomed Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools back to athletic action this week. With basketball playoffs just around the corner, their arrival back to the court was just in time for a final tune-up before the post-season begins. Check out some of the final scores this week from the area’s varsity boys basketball teams:

Independence vs. ButlerCredit: Charlotte Observer/Jeff Siner — Independence vs. Butler
Credit: Charlotte Observer/Jeff Siner

Monday, February 8

Cox Mill Chargers 81

Northwest Cabarrus Trojans 38

Tuesday, February 9

Charlotte Catholic Cougars 49

Weddington Warriors 54

Kings Mountain Mountaineers 68

Ashbrook Green Wave 44

South Point Red Raiders 88

East Rutherford Cavaliers 52

Cannon Cougars 60

Charlotte Latin Hawks 63

Myers Park Mustangs 73

Hickory Ridge Ragin’ Bulls 52

Butler Bulldogs 45

Independence Patriots 73

Mooresville Blue Devils 52

Lake Norman Wildcats 56

Mallard Creek Mavericks 68

Hopewell Titans 72

South Iredell Vikings 55

North Iredell Raiders 72

East Rowan Mustangs 64

Statesville Greyhounds 70

Wednesday, February 10

East Mecklenburg Eagles 36

North Mecklenburg Vikings 93

Rocky River Ravens 76

Myers Park Mustangs 69

Thursday, February 11

Hunter Huss Huskies 56

Ashbrook Green Wave 52

Shelby Golden Lions 96

Kings Mountain Mountaineers 75

Hough Huskies 56

North Mecklenburg Vikings 83

Vance Cougars 50

West Charlotte Lions 59

Charlotte Country Day Buccaneers 47

Cannon Cougars 86

West Caldwell Warriors 71

West Iredell Warriors 45

Bunker Hill Bears 75

Draughn Wildcats 79

Fred T. Foard Tigers 45

Patton Panthers 85

Friday, February 12

Burns Bulldogs 70

East Gaston Warriors 58

R-S Central Hilltoppers 70

South Point Red Raiders 67

Bunker Hill Bears 75

Patton Panthers 80

Statesville Greyhounds 43

West Rowan Falcons 82

East Rowan Mustangs 77

North Iredell Raiders 87

Jesse Carson Cougars 62

South Iredell Vikings 66

Myers Park Mustangs 53

East Mecklenburg Eagles 40

Garinger Wildcats 21

Independence Patriots 67

Rocky River Ravens 72

Porter Ridge Pirates 69

Hickory Ridge Ragin’ Bulls 57

Butler Bulldogs 58

Saturday, February 13

Cuthbertson Cavaliers 45

Weddington Warriors 85

Charlotte Latin Hawks 42

Cannon Cougars 67

Charlotte Observer Sweet 16 (Updated Tuesday, February 9)

16. Lincoln Charter (1A)

15. North Iredell (3A)

14. Central Cabarrus (3A)

13. R-S Central (3A)

12. West Rowan (3A)

11. Charlotte Catholic (3A)

10. Northside Christian (IND)

9. United Faith (IND)

8. Shelby (2A)

7. Victory Christian (IND)

6. Charlotte Latin (IND)

5. Weddington (3A)

4. Davidson Day (IND)

3. Westminster Catawba (IND)

2. Cannon School (IND)

1. Carmel Christian (IND)

Garett

704 Weekly Sports Report