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Showdown set
By Denny O'Brien
©2004 Bonesville.net
RALEIGH — It looks like East Carolina and N.C. State will play a high
stakes game after all.
But instead of a gridiron
grudge match with bowl bids on the line, the most significant battle the
Pirates and Pack will wage this year will take place on the hardwood.
Fueled by relentless
defensive pressure and an emotional 21-6 first half run, ECU weathered
an early scoring drought to rally past Oregon State 64-62 in the second
round of the Black Coaches Association Invitational.
With the win, the Pirates
(2-0) locked in a reservation for a championship showdown with the No.
19 Wolfpack for the second time in three years. Tip off for Friday
night's title game is 7:30 p.m.
"A great win for our
basketball team and our program," Pirates coach Bill Herrion said after
the game."
"This tournament has been
good to us," recalled Herrion. "Three years ago, we beat Rutgers and we
beat Northwestern. We've beaten two quality basketball teams so far in
this tournament."
ECU advanced to the
semifinal matchup with OSU by routing Pepperdine 80-58 in a Wednesday
opening round game.
It didn't look promising
early, as the Beavers gnawed themselves to a 16-3 lead at the 13:25 mark
of the first half. The Pirates couldn't find a rhythm offensively and
found the rims unforgiving on the few occasions that they had open
looks.
Then ECU upped the
defensive pressure and sprinted past OSU with a 21-6 run to close the
half and seize a 30-28 lead it would relinquish only briefly in the
second half.
"They kind of really
physically bumped us around the first ten minutes of the game," Herrion
said. "We had trouble getting a shot up.
"But you know, that's how
our kids are. They didn't quit, they didn't hang their heads. They hung
in there and we started getting some stops defensively. Then we started
getting some transition. Then our crowd got behind us."
And the predominately
purple and gold-clad crowd was most vocal when junior guard Mike Cook
had the ball in his hands.
Cook finished the game
with 22 points on nine-of-16 shooting, including two-of-four from behind
the arc. He nailed the first five points of the second half to push the
Pirates' lead to 35-28 and also snared seven rebounds while dishing out
three assists.
However, it wasn't enough
to keep the pesky Beavers out of contention. After Cook missed the front
end of a one-and-one with ten seconds to play, Oregon State had a final
shot, but Sasa Cuic missed a three at the buzzer.
"I'd like to see us do a
better job of trying to put teams away," Herrion said. "We had control
of the game, up nine. We were very fatigued, though.
"Maybe I did a poor job of
maybe not subbing certain guys in the second half a little bit more. But
you knew it was going to be a possession game. You knew it was going to
go down to the wire. You've got to have your best players on the floor."
Perhaps no one was better
than point guard Japhet McNeil, who scored eight points and dished out a
game-high six assists. His defensive pressure and gritty play down the
stretch was the difference for ECU.
"I thought Japhet McNeil
was a huge key," Herrion said. "We did not start him in the second half.
Maybe that kind of motivated him a little bit.
"But the last 15 minutes
of the game, he was tremendous defensively. He had a huge scoop lay-up
and two huge free throws."
Senior center Moussa
Badiane made his first appearance after serving an NCAA suspension
during the season opener against Pepperdine. He finished with 13 points,
five rebounds, and five blocks.
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BOX
SCORE East Carolina 64,
Oregon State 62
Records: East Carolina 2-0;
Oregon State 1-1.
Halftime: Pepperdine 39, East Carolina 33.
EAST CAROLINA
Name Min
FG 3Pt FT Off Reb
Ast TO Stl Blk PF Pts
Kilgore 21 3-6
0-2 0-1 0 2
1 0 0 0
4 6
McNeill 28 2-4
0-1 4-4 1 4
6 4 1 0
2 8
Rouse 19 0-1
0-0 1-4 3 6
0 2 0 0
4 1
Cook 36 9-16
2-4 2-3 0 7
3 4 1 0
2 22
Castro 20 1-4
0-1 3-5 2 7
0 0 0 0
4 5
King 4
0-0 0-0 0-0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0
Hammonds 31 3-9 1-6
1-2 1 4 2
1 2 0 2
8
Badiane 33 6-17 0-0
1-2 2 5 0
1 0 5 2
13
Hart 8
0-0 0-0 1-2 0
0 0 0 1
1 1 1
Totals 200 24-57 3-14 13-23
9 35 12 12 5
6 21 64
Percentages: .421 .214 .565 Team Rebounds: 3
OREGON STATE
Name Min
FG 3Pt FT Off Reb
Ast TO Stl Blk PF Pts
Hurd 27
0-2 0-0 0-0 0
4 1 2 2
0 2 0
Stephens 34 5-13 2-6
0-0 1 2 0
2 0 0 2
12
Cuic 34 6-14
1-4 10-10 3 6
0 6 0 0
3 23
Nash 33
2-6 1-3 5-9 0
4 1 2 0
0 2 10
Jeffers 16 1-5
0-0 0-0 2 3
1 0 2 1
4 2
Hughes 1 0-0
0-0 0-0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0
Jones 14 1-5
1-1 0-0 0 1
1 2 0 0
3 3
Fontenet 14 1-1 0-0
1-2 0 2 2
0 0 0 1
3
Hanchett 12 1-3 0-0
1-1 0 1 1
1 0 0 2
3
Potter 2 0-0
0-0 0-0 0 0
0 0 0 0
1 0
Hooks 13 3-5
0-0 0-0 3 8
0 0 0 1
1 6
Totals 200 20-54 5-14 17-22
9 31 7 15
4 2 21 62
Percentages: .370 .357 .773 Team Rebounds: 7
Technical Fouls: None.
Officials: Bernard Clinton, Mark Schnur, Susan Hunter.
Attendance: 8,164.
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02/23/07 01:57 AM
From Associated
Press and ECU reports with Bonesville.net staff contributions. Copyright 2004. All
rights rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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