FORT WORTH — Ezra Ausar scored 28 points on 10 of 12 field goal shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead East Carolina to an 84-79 win over Tulsa in the second round of the American Athletic Conference tournament at Dickies Arena on Thursday.
Ausar had a total of 17 points in ECU’s 5-game losing streak leading up to the league event.
“It was great to see the Ezra Ausar that we all know,” said coach Michael Schwartz on the Pirate radio network. “He played with a lot of heart and soul.”
R.J. Felton went the full 40 minutes and had 19 points as ECU led 42-16 in points in the paint.
Brandon Johnson added 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Ausar dunked the ball so powerfully in the second half that the game was later delayed to get the basket realigned.
The Pirates (15-17) advance to meet top-seeded South Florida (23-6) on Friday at 1 p.m. (ESPN2). The Bulls topped ECU, 71-60, in Greenville in the only regular season meeting on Jan. 31.
The Pirates led the Golden Hurricane (16-15) by a 41-36 margin at halftime.
Tulsa went ahead, 77-75, on a 3-pointer by Jared Garcia with 2:09 to go.
Felton tied the score at 77 with two free throws with 1:51 remaining.
Felton’s jumper in the paint put ECU ahead to stay at 79-77 with 34 seconds to go. Cam Hayes made two from the line with three seconds left for the final margin.
Jaden Walker had seven points for the Pirates before fouling out. Bobby Pettiford Jr. scored six. Callum Richard tallied four. Hayes had three points and Cyr Malonga added two.
ECU hit 27 of 54 field goal attempts for 50 percent, including six of 15 from beyond the arc (40 percent).
Both teams got to the line as Tulsa was 22 of 32 and ECU was 24 of 35.
P.J. Haggerty led the Golden Hurricane with 29 points. Adding 11 each in the loss were Carlous Williams, Jared Garcia and Cobe Williams.
Schwartz saw some elements that characterized the Pirates earlier in the season.
“I believe the resiliency of our players allowed us to reset,” said Schwartz via a post-game Zoom. “When we were playing our best basketball in early February, we were assisting on made field goals. We had 17 assists. We won the rebounding battle today (41-26), which were areas we focused on going into this game.”.
Hayes had eight assists.
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