That is Charlotte’s path to the NCAA Tournament, a road that starts Friday in Fort Worth, in the 49ers’ first American Athletic Conference Tournament.

Charlotte earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament Saturday, completing the season sweep of in-state conference foe East Carolina, downing the Pirates 82-72 in Greenville. A double-bye is the result, giving Charlotte an additional two days of rest, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.

Despite Charlotte’s (19-11, 13-5 AAC) late-season, three-game skid, and a narrow victory over a struggling Rice team Wednesday, the 49ers looked back in top form against the Pirates on Saturday. Charlotte saw three players tie or exceed career-highs in the victory, led by Lu’Cye Patterson’s 27 points — the most a 49er has scored this season.

“It feels good to get that double-bye. I know that’s a big-time thing for us and the program, just to come in the American and finish top three when we were picked to finish (13th),” Patterson said after the game. “It’s big time for us.”

While its quarterfinal matchup is still to be decided, a victory would mark Charlotte’s first win in a conference tournament game since 2016, as well as push the 49ers to 20 total wins for the second consecutive season.

“We’ve got to take it one game at a time,” Patterson said of the tournament. “Losing three (straight) just taught us a lot and knowing that we can bounce back. We’re playing good team ball, and this a good time for us to be playing good basketball going into that tournament.”

Saturday’s performance was Charlotte’s best in more than a month — dating back to a 47-point first-half against conference champion South Florida on Feb. 6. The team that entered the locker room of the Yuengling Center with a 10-point advantage hadn’t looked quite the same since, but Aaron Fearne’s team rediscovered its offensive stride in the final game of the regular season, shooting 55% from the field, 52.4% from beyond the arc and 81% from the line — all while outrebounding the Pirates.

The 49ers hadn’t totaled 80 points since mid-January and poured in 47 of their 82 in the second half against East Carolina, led by the guard duo of Patterson and Nik Graves, who combined for 47 total points.

Graves tied his career-best of 20 points, shooting an efficient 60% from the field, 75% from three and 83% from the free throw line. Despite a slow scoring day for center Dishon Jackson (five points), Charlotte’s big man dished out a career-best seven assists, operating from the elbow and making the extra pass — all while pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds.

“When (Dishon) screens, he screens very well — gets me wide open. He makes my life a lot easier,” Patterson said of Jackson. “All credit to him, and even though he didn’t have the best scoring day today, he did all of the little things for us to get this win.”

After scoring just two points and fouling out in Charlotte’s last outing, Patterson added his eighth 20-point performance of the season, pouring in 27 points (18 in the second half) and three assists, while playing a team-high 38 minutes — tied for the most he’s played in a game this season.

Guard play wins in March, and Charlotte has its sights set on something the program hasn’t done since 2004-05 — earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Against the current top 6 seeds in the tournament (South Florida, Florida Atlantic, SMU, UAB and Memphis), Charlotte has a 2-4 record on the season — beating Florida Atlantic and UAB at Halton Arena.

Charlotte’s last win in a conference tournament game came in the 2016 Conference USA Tournament, beating now-AAC foe Rice. Since then, Charlotte is 0-5 in conference tournament games and will look to break the streak on Friday night at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.