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Shooting miseries
persist as Pirates' skid continues
From staff and wire reports
Box Score
GREENVILLE — East Carolina won the last 35 minutes of
its game with Conference USA visitor Cincinnati Wednesday night. It was
the first five minutes or so that was the problem.
ECU, still mired in a shooting funk as bone-shivering
cold as the weather outside, tossed up bricks in falling behind 8-1
in the first 4:51 before beginning to find the range on occasion and
outscoring the Bearcats 52-51 during the remainder of the game.
The net result for the Pirates, who didn't score their
first field goal until Belton Rivers managed a layup after 6:06 had
passed, was a 59-53 loss.
East Carolina threatened to surge ahead in the game's
late stages, but Cincinnati's Leonard Stokes scored six of his 16 points
in the final 4:38 to help shut the door on the Pirates' comeback
attempt.
The Bearcats (12-3, 5-0 C-USA) led twice by as many as 10 points, the
last time coming at 39-29 with 13:14 remaining. But East Carolina (10-6,
1-4) went on a 16-8 run to get within two with 5:18 to play.
Cincinnati pushed the lead back to seven, then center
Moussa Badiane answered with a short hook and a three-point play to get
East Carolina to within 52-50 with 2:14 remaining.
Jason Maxiell and Stokes each countered with two free
throws for Cincinnati before Belton Rivers sliced the six-point lead in
half with a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left. That was the closest the
Pirates would get as the Bearcats made three of four free throws to end
the game.
Gabriel Mikulas scored 15 points to lead the Pirates,
who shot only 31 percent from the field in losing their fourth game in a
row. Badiane and Rivers added 13 points each for East Carolina.
Tony Bobbitt and Armein Kirkland came off the bench to
each finish with nine points for Cincinnati.
Both teams struggled offensively in the game's first 12
minutes. The Pirates made just two of their first 14 field-goal attempts
while Cincinnati went just 3-for-15 in the same stretch.
ECU took its only lead of the game on a pair of Mikulas
free throws with 6:23 to play in the first half. The Bearcats closed the
half by hitting seven of their last nine shots to bolt ahead 29-25.
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BOX
SCORE
Cincinnati (12-3,
5-0 C-USA) 59, East Carolina (10-6, 1-4) 53
DePaul (55)
Player FG
FT PTS
Stokes
5-15 6-8 16
Barker
1-3 3-4 6
Maxiell 2-6
3-4 7
Williams 0-7
0-0 0
Johnson 3-3
1-2 7
Bobbit
2-8 3-3 9
Kirkland 3-4
2-2 9
Flowers 1-2
1-2 3
Hicks
0-0 0-0 0
Hollman 0-0
0-0 0
Moore
1-1 0-0 2
Lucas
0-0 0-0 0
TOTAL
18-49 19-25 59
East Carolina (42)
Player FG
FT PTS
Holcomb-Faye 2-7 2-2
6
Mikulas 2-5
11-12 15
Rivers
4-12 2-2 13
Wiley
0-8 2-2 2
Badiane 5-9
3-4 13
Bing
1-3 2-2 4
MacKay
0-1 0-0 0
Rouse
0-0 0-0 0
TOTAL
14-45 22-24 53
Halftime: Cincinnati 29, East Carolina
25.
3-point goals: Cincinnati 4-18;
East Carolina 3-16.
Rebounds: Cincinnati 35
(Johnson 10, Stokes 8); East Carolina 29 (Badiane 8, Mikulas 8).
Assists: Cincinnati 7 (Barker
6); East Carolina 12 (Holcomb-Faye 6.)
Total fouls: Cincinnati 22; East Carolina
17.
Fouled out: None.
Technical fouls: None.
Attendance: 6,612. |
02/23/2007 10:56 AM
Copyright 2002
The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Bonesville.net contributed to this report.
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