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Road-shy Pirates take
pounding at Marquette
From staff and wire reports
Box Score
MILWAUKEE — East Carolina has experienced frustration on
one scale or another each time it has ventured on the road since
becoming a basketball-playing member of Conference USA last season — but
seldom has the futility been as pronounced as it was at Marquette
Wednesday night.
Dwyane Wade had 25 points, six assists and four steals
as the No. 18 Golden Eagles routed ECU 80-48 for their 26th consecutive
win at home. Robert Jackson added 16 points as Marquette (14-3, 6-1
C-USA) won its sixth straight game overall.
His coach, Tom Crean, calls Wade "one of the
most complete players in America." If proof of Crean's claim was needed
to convince doubters, Wade delivered it in helping his team
deal some serious payback of sorts to the visitors.
The Pirates (11-7, 2-5) handed then No. 9 Marquette its
only conference loss on Dec. 30 in Greenville, but they never led in the
rematch, falling behind by as many as 38 points in the second half.
"Dwyane just continues to dominate at both ends right now," Crean said.
"He's getting better defensively, and this is a really impressive
stretch of games for him."
Wade has 20 steals during Marquette's winning streak, and has scored at
least 20 points in his last five outings. Though he entered Wednesday's
games as the ninth-leading scorer in the nation with a 23.1 average,
Wade made his biggest impact in other areas.
He had 12 points, three steals and two assists in the final 5:14 of the
first half as Marquette extended its lead from 23-17 to 41-23. He
started the streak by feeding Jackson for a pair of layups, then turned
two steals into a dunk and a three-point play.
Wade closed the half by flashing down the lane and converting a pass
from Travis Diener into a layup.
"I think I've got so much confidence now in my teammates to know that I
can go out and pressure the ball, and they've got my back," Wade said.
"It just carries over to the offensive end."
Marquette held the Pirates to 34.7 percent field-goal shooting and
forced 16 turnovers while committing only eight. The Golden Eagles also
outrebounded the Pirates 35-29 and shot 9-of-20 on 3-pointers.
"We beat them in Greenville right after Christmas, and I'm sure there
was payback on their mind, no doubt about it," East Carolina coach Bill
Herrion said. "We got thoroughly outplayed tonight in every aspect of
the game."
Gabriel Mikulas led the Pirates with 11 points.
The loss was ECU's 16th straight on the road in C-USA,
and the Pirates face the possibility of having that sum increased by two
before seeing their home court again. East Carolina has matchups at
Tulane on Saturday and at Memphis next Tuesday, before hosting Southern
Miss on Saturday, Feb. 8.
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BOX
SCORE
No. 18 Marquette (14-3,
6-1) 80, East Carolina (11-7, 2-5) 48
East Carolina (48)
Player FG
FT PTS
Bing
1-3 1-2 3
Mikulas 3-6
5-6 11
Badiane 3-7
1-2 7
Rivers
1-6 0-0 2
Wiley
2-10 3-4 7
MacKay
1-3 0-1 3
Holcomb-Faye 3-10 2-2
9
Boddie
1-1 0-0 2
Moore
2-3 0-0 4
Twitty
0-0 0-0 0
Grindley 0-0
0-0 0
Totals
17-49 12-17 48
Marquette (80)
Player FG
FT PTS
Townsend 5-9
0-0 13
Merritt 2-7
0-0 4
Jackson 7-15
2-2 16
Wade
10-15 5-6 25
Diener
3-5 0-0 9
Bradley 2-4
0-1 6
Novak
1-2 0-0 3
Chapman 0-3
0-0 0
Grimm
0-0 0-0 0
Sanders 2-2
0-0 4
Gries
0-1 0-0 0
Sichting 0-0
0-0 0
Totals
32-63 7-9 80
Halftime: Marquette 41, East
Carolina 23.
3-point goals: East Carolina
2-11 (MacKay 1-3, Holcomb-Faye 1-4, Bing 0-1, Wiley 0-1, Rivers
0-2), Marquette 9-20 (Diener 3-4, Townsend 3-6, Bradley 2-4, Novak
1-2, Gries 0-1, Chapman 0-1, Wade 0-2).
Rebounds: East Carolina 29
(Bing 7), Marquette 35 (Merritt 13).
Assists: East Carolina 11
(Mikulas, Badiane, Rivers, Holcomb-Faye 2), Marquette 18 (Wade,
Diener 6).
Total fouls: East Caroline 13,
Marquette 18.
Fouled out: None.
Technical fouls: n/a.
Attendance: 13,141. |
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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