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Pirates can't catch runaway Williams
From staff and wire
reports
MEMPHIS DeAngelo
Williams rushed for 226 yards and two touchdowns Saturday as Memphis
held off an East Carolina comeback and claimed a 27-24 Conference USA
victory.
Williams' performance was
enough to help offset a second half surge by the Pirates that narrowed a
17-0 halftime deficit and put the game up for grabs in the final
quarter.
Williams,
promoted by Memphis as a Heisman Trophy candidate,
had a career-high 39 rushes in the game and scored on a pair of 1-yard
runs.
In the end, the Tigers
(4-3, 3-2 C-USA) would need all of Williams' exploits as well as
contributions from others to snap East Carolina's two-game winning
streak.
The Pirates (3-4, 2-2) had
cut the Tigers' lead to 20-17 on James Pinkney's 6-yard touchdown pass
to Chris Johnson with 10:25 left.
But the Tigers answered
with a 15-play, 80-yard drive that consumed 8:08. Quarterback Maurice
Avery's 1-yard sneak capped the drive and preserved the Memphis victory.
Pinkney hit Phillip Henry
with a 2-yard scoring pass with 10 seconds left for the final score.
Pinkney finished 26-of-46
passing for 297 yards, the bulk of the Pirates' 343 yards of offense. It
was his seventh consecutive game with 200-plus passing yards, tying a
school record.
Aundrae Allison had 10
catches for 108 yards, his fifth game of the season with more than 100
yards in receptions.
Stephen Gostkowski booted
a career-long 51-yard field goal to open the Memphis scoring. The
Pirates blocked another Gostkowski attempt from 39 yards at the
close of the half.
Memphis held a 20-10 lead
entering the fourth after the Pirates scored on a 27-yard field goal by
Robert Lee and a 27-yard pass from Pinkney to Allison.
02/23/2007 10:54 AM
Copyright 2005 The
Associated Press. Bonesville.net contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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