Pirates make history against Houston

By Al Myatt
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Post-game Audio: Lebo, Tyson & Whisnant...

GREENVILLE — East Carolina and Houston came into Wednesday night's matchup with winless records in the American Athletic Conference but the Pirates emerged with a 66-61 victory, their first league triumph since moving to the AAC this season.

"That was a big win for our kids," ECU coach Jeff Lebo said. "There was a lot of relief I think on the faces of a lot of guys out there. Two teams that have been struggling and in the last five minutes of the game it came down to who was going to make the plays, who had the confidence to make the plays, the plays to try to win the game and luckily we came out on top."

ECU (8-9, 1-3 AAC) had a pair of 13-point leads in the second half, the last at 42-29 with 13:38 to play on a jumper by Michel-Ofik Nzege. Houston (7-9, 0-5) closed the margin to one point at four junctures, the final time at 62-61 on a jumper by LeRon Barnes with 35 seconds to go.

A free throw by Antonio Robinson gave the Pirates a 63-61 advantage with 33 seconds remaining. Freshman B.J. Tyson claimed a defensive rebound on Houston's ensuing possession and made one foul shot with 16 seconds left to give ECU a 64-61 advantage.

Danrad Knowles of the Cougars missed a 3-point attempt with seven seconds left and Caleb White claimed the carom. White made two from the line with four seconds showing for the final margin.

Tyson led ECU in scoring with 16 points and in rebounding with seven.

"(B.J.) was terrific," Lebo said. "He shot 50 percent from the field (7 for 14) and played with a lot of confidence. ... He was great but I thought our point guard play was good too. Antonio (Robinson) and Lance (Tejada) combined for 15 points at that spot and that's the kind of numbers we need from them."

Jherrod Stiggers was limited to five points, significantly below his 16.1 average for the Cougars.

"Terry Whisnant did a great job on Stiggers all night," Lebo said. "No threes in the game and he's averaging 10 attempts and four makes per game. ... He was 0 of 5 (on threes) and 2 of 15 (overall field goals). That is a reason why we had a chance to win this game."

Whisnant played a team high 34 minutes and contributed 13 points on the offensive end.

"Coach (Lebo) challenged me early in the week, by telling me about this guy and what he likes to do," Whisnant said. "(Coach) told me he usually shoots 10 threes a game and I took it as a challenge. Coach was on me all week and I studied film to see what he did. I was ready to lock up tonight and I really didn't care about scoring. I just did what I needed to do in order for us to get this win tonight."

White added 14 points for the Pirates.

Nzege had six rebounds despite foul trouble that cut his playing time to 18 minutes.

ECU had a 39-37 rebounding advantage.

"The coaches always say we win more games when we outrebound the other team," Tyson said.

Robinson had eight points, four assists and two steals for ECU, which was supported by a crowd of 4,368 in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. Tejada had seven points and two assists in 15 minutes.

Marshall Guilmette continued his comeback from a hip ailment with six points in 19 minutes. Guilmette made his first career 3-pointer with six minutes to go for a 52-48 Pirates lead.

Houston held its lone lead at 6-5 but ECU answered with a layup by Tejada and the Pirates were on top the rest of the way.

Knowles paced the visitors with 16 points. L.J. Rose scored 15 and Cavon Baker added 11.

Houston is coached by Laurinburg native Kelvin Sampson, whose previous stops have included Oklahoma and Indiana.

ECU plays at Southern Methodist (13-4, 4-1) on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ET) in a contest that will be shown on the CBS Sports Network. The Mustangs outscored host Temple 34-22 in the second half Wednesday night for a 60-55 win.

PAGE UPDATED 01/16/15 12:24 AM.

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