CINCINNATI — Cincinnati evened its account with East Carolina from a 73-71 road loss to the Pirates on Jan. 5 last season.
The Bearcats took control early at home on Sunday night and dealt ECU an 82-57 American Athletic Conference defeat.
Jayden Gardner gave the Pirates a brief 2-0 lead, but the hosts tied the score on two free throws by Keith Williams and went ahead to stay on a 3-pointer by Mika Adams-Woods with 18:29 left in the opening half.
ECU fell to 8-10 overall and 2-3 in the AAC despite 16 points on 5-of-10 field goal shooting by Brandon Suggs.
Cincinnati (11-7, 4-2) was led by a double-double from Tre Scott.that included 16 points and 11 rebounds. Jarron Cumberland had 13 points and seven assists for the Bearcats. Williams finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.
Gardner had 13 points and eight rebounds for the Pirates. J.J. Miles and Tristen Newton scored six points each. Newton had four assists in under 14 minutes. Suggs had three steals before fouling out.
Gardner and Tremont Robinson-White each had three assists.
Cincinnati hit 30 of its 66 field goal attempts (45.5 percent) while ECU made 20 of 61 (32.8 percent). The hosts had a 46-34 rebounding advantage and committed fewer turnovers, 12-19.
“We did some things we hadn’t done in a while, so we need to get that corrected quickly,” said ECU coach Joe Dooley.
The Pirates face another team with a revenge motive as they visit Southern Methodist (13-4, 3-2) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ECU topped the Mustangs, 71-68, in Greenville on Jan. 11.
Leave a comment