Pirates' comeback goes frigid
From wire reports with staff contributions
Box Score
GREENVILLE — East Carolina
rallied from an early deficit of as much as 11 points to lead by as much
as three with less than 9 minutes to go before running into its old
nemesis, Mr. Scoring Slump, and watching Saint Louis surge ahead in the
closing minutes for a 58-48 victory on Saturday.
Drew Drejai's 3-pointer
with 6:01 left gave the Billikens the lead for good and SLU scored 17 of
the game's final 21 points to keep alive its hopes of landing an NIT bid
in the event it doesn't astonish the college basketball world by
capturing the Conference USA Tournament title.
The cold shooting that has
plagued ECU much of the season was once again a factor in the outcome.
The Pirates connected on only 31.3 percent of their field goal attempts
(15-48) while Saint Louis tallied a respectable 41.3 percent shooting
percentage (19-46.)
SLU (15-12, 9-7 C-USA)
closed the game with a 12-2 run to win its seventh consecutive game
while ECU lost its sixth contest in a row.
East Carolina (12-15, 3-13)
finished its season with a game in which it was unable to put up a point
over a stretch of more than five minute after Gabriel Mikulas converted
a pair of free throws to tie the game at 46-46 with 5:38 left.
Drejai and Marque Perry led
the Billikens with 15 points each. Perry was held to 2-of-14 from the
field, but converted 11-of-11 foul shots.
East Carolina's Derrick
Wiley had 16 points and Erroyl Bing added 10. Moussa Badiane grabbed a
10 rebounds and had two blocked shots for the Pirates, who had a 35-29
advantage on the boards.
BOX
SCORE Saint Louis
(15-12, 9-7) 58, East Carolina (12-15, 3-13) 48
SAINT LOUIS (58)
Player
FG FT
PTS
Diener
1-2 0-0 3
Sloan
3-7 1-2 8
Brown
2-3 2-4 6
Fisher
2-4 0-0 4
Perry
2-14 11-11 15
Drejai
6-9 0-0 15
Varner
0-1 0-0 0
Ohanon
2-4 0-2 4
Braun
1-2 1-2 3
Totals
19-46 15-21 58
EAST CAROLINA (48)
Player FG
FT PTS
Wiley
6-14 3-4 16
Bing
4-8 2-2 10
Mikulas 1-6
7-7 9
Rivers
1-9 0-0 2
Holcomb-Faye 1-6 0-0
2
Mackay
1-3 0-0 3
Badiane 1-2
4-6 6
Totals
15-48 16-19 48
Halftime: Saint Louis 29, East
Carolina 23.
3-point goals: Saint Louis 5-14
(Diener 1-2, Sloan 1-4, Perry 0-1, Drejai 3-6, Varner 0-1); East
Carolina 2-12 (Wiley 1-2, Rivers 0-5, Holcomb-Faye 0-4, Mackay 1-1).
Rebounds: Saint Louis 29 (Perry
7), East Carolina 35 (Badiane 10).
Assists: Saint Louis 11 (Fisher
4), East Carolina 7 (Holcomb-Faye 3).
Total fouls: Saint Louis 19,
East Carolina 18.
Fouled out: None.
Technical fouls: N/A.
Attendance: 4,243. |
02/23/07 10:56 AM
Copyright 2003
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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