GREENVILLE — Tulsa finished the game on a 31-15 run to deal host East Carolina a 65-49 American Athletic Conference defeat on Wednesday night.
The score was tied at 30 at the half and was knotted at 34 when Jeriah Horne scored five unanswered points for the Golden Hurricane. That keyed an 8-0 flurry for the visitors that was capped by three points from Brandon Rachal.
ECU sophomore Jayden Gardner went out of the game briefly with his third foul during the decisive Tulsa spree as the Pirates had a 2-game winning streak in league play halted with 5,332 on hand in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
“We took our crowd out of the game with our play,” said ECU coach Joe Dooley.
The Pirates made just five of 23 shots from the floor in the second half (21.7 percent) and missed all 15 of their 3-point attempts after intermission.
ECU was outrebounded 39-31 and had more turnovers, 13-10.
Gardner paced the Pirates with 19 points and seven rebounds. Tristen Newton was next in the scoring column with six points.
Rachal had 21 points and seven rebounds for Tulsa (11-6, 3-1 AAC). Horne had 14 points and six rebounds. Martins Igbanu had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Hurricane.
ECU (8-9, 2-2) must regroup for a game at Cincinnati on Sunday at 6 p.m. The Bearcats are 10-6 overall and 3-1 in the league going into a matchup at No. 22 Memphis (13-3, 2-1) on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
Leave a comment