Glimpses give hope

By Brian Bailey
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

East Carolina’s first half at Temple on Saturday night showed just how good this Pirate team can be.

Unfortunately, the Pirates couldn’t put together two halves and lost to the Owls, 78-60, at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.

The Pirates shot almost 60 percent from the field in that first half, hitting 6 of 9 three pointers. East Carolina built an 11-point first half lead and appeared to be in control with just 1:44 to play in the half.

ECU started to unravel in that final 1:44. The 11-point lead dwindled quickly to just five after Devin Coleman hit a couple of threes for Temple. That was part of a 15-0 run that ended the first half and opened the second half for the Owls.

Still, that first half sends hope. The Pirates had 10 assists against just 3 turnovers in that first stanza.

Other positives included Clarence Williams scoring 10 of his career high 12 points in the first half.

It was certainly a loss that ECU head coach Jeff Lebo can build on.

Things don’t get any easier though.

Southern Methodist comes to town on Wednesday night as one of two undefeated teams in the nation. The other is South Carolina. The Mustangs moved up to 10th in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 after beating Central Florida this weekend.

For Coach Lebo, Wednesday night is a “Tar Heel” reunion with SMU and former Tar Heel great Larry Brown.

The 75-year-old Brown missed the season’s first nine games because of NCAA sanctions. Those sanctions will also keep a very good SMU team out of the postseason this year.

Brown also missed the second half of Sunday’s 88-73 win over UCF with vertigo-like symptoms.

The Hall of Fame coach told reporters afterwards that he would be fine. He told them that dehydration and worries over junior guard Keith Frazier were the reasons behind his sickness. Frazier missed his third game while dealing with what is described as personal issues.

SMU simply crushed UCF in that win on Sunday. They took control of the game with an early 15-0 run that included a trio of three pointers in the span of 57-seconds. The Ponies also had a total of eight dunks in the win.

Wednesday night’s matchup is a tremendous opportunity for East Carolina to shine in the national spotlight. SMU will bring a tall, athletic and very talented squad to Williams Arena.

The Pirates have had success against top ten 10 teams. Who could ever forget the two wins over 9th-ranked Marquette in consecutive seasons at Williams Arena in 2001 and 2002?

Hopefully, Williams Arena will be rocking on Wednesday night.

And hopefully we’ll see the Pirate team we saw in the first half of the Temple game from Saturday night.

BB

E-mail Brian Bailey