On the cusp of the winning formula

By Brian Bailey
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Jeff Lebo's teams always play their best basketball at the end of the season.

Perhaps we saw a glimpse of that on Saturday. Tulsa came to town and got all it wanted from East Carolina before slipping out of town with a 66-64 win.

The Golden Hurricane improved to 7-0 in American Athletic Conference play. Tulsa has won nine a row under first-year head coach Frank Haith.

The Pirates fell to 8-11 overall and 1-5 in AAC play, yet these two teams didn't seem to be all that far apart.

Terry Whisnant led the ECU cause with 22 points. He rang in six 3-pointers and played his best game as a Pirate.

The fact is that the entire team played one of its best games of the year.

With the loss, though, there was really nothing to show for the effort.

"That's a hurting bunch in that locker room right now," said Pirate Coach Jeff Lebo after the game. "We battled our tails off against a really good team, but they're an experienced group, used to winning and good teams find ways to win."

One quick glance at the stat sheet tells the story of this game.

Tulsa took almost three times the number of free throws as did the Pirates. The Golden Hurricane shot 29 free throws compared to the Pirates grand total of 12. The Pirates were outscored by 14 on the charity stripe.

"We took care of the ball well, both teams I thought did," said Lebo. "The difference was their ability to get to the foul line and get some points in the paint. That is something that's going to be challenging for us all year and that's not going away."

As losses mount, frustrations tend to rise. Lebo and his Pirates would have liked nothing more than to have pulled off the upset over the league's top team.

"Today really shows the heart of this team, and that we are able to play with anybody in this conference as long as we do the things we need to do," said Whisnant, who was obviously pleased with his effort but most disappointed with the outcome.

The worst part about a loss like this is that everyone inside the program knows that wins will be hard to come by. This was certainly a great opportunity to make a splash in the AAC.

The schedule certainly isn't an ally either. The Pirates head to Memphis this week on Wednesday before returning home to host Cincinnati on Sunday. Next week includes a trip to defending national champion UConn.

The Pirates knew the transition to the American would have its ups and downs. Winning consistently in this league will not be easy.

"It's going to take some time," said Lebo. "That team (Tulsa) is an NCAA tournament team and they won a championship. They never panicked and we got to figure out how to do that. We need to figure out who we're going to go to. They already knew who they're going to go to late in the games. We're trying to figure that out still. We need to get some consistent play."

Thus the challenge for the rest of January and into February. This team must find consistency, on offense and defense.

There's plenty of basketball to be played.

The Pirates need to see some positive results from all of the work.

BB

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