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Frogs Battle Back to Void Second Half ECU Run
From Associated Press Reports
with Staff Contributions
JUMP
TO BOX SCORE
Despite Loss, Pirates Draw Tournament Foe They Have Beaten
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ECU Will Face Cougars |
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CHICAGO —
Eleventh-seeded East Carolina (12-17, 5-11) will face
sixth-seeded Houston (16-13, 9-7) at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday,
March 6 in the First Round of the Conference USA Tournament..
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Pirates' League Tourney Games Will Be on the Tube |
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East Carolina's appearances in the Conference USA Tournament
in Cincinnati will be broadcast by WITN-TV 7, according to a
report on the station's 6 PM newscast on Saturday...
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FORT WORTH, TX — Texas Christian saw an early 13-point lead
over East Carolina turn into a five-point second half deficit before
stabilizing itself enough to prevail in a tug of war in the final moments.
Corey Santee hit a tie-breaking jumper with 19 seconds left
as TCU beat East Carolina 66-63 Saturday night in Billy Tubbs' last
regular-season game as the Horned Frogs' coach.
Santee's 15-footer broke a 63-63 tie. After East Carolina
missed two shots, Bingo Merriex was fouled on the rebound and made his
second free throw with 3.7 seconds left.
TCU (16-14, 6-10 Conference USA) won for the fifth time in
seven games despite its lowest scoring output of the season. East Carolina
(12-17, 5-11) is 0-12 on the road, and the only C-USA team not to win a road
game this season.
Merriex led TCU with 18 points, and Santee had 15. Corey
Valsin had 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Kenyatta Brown had 14 points for East Carolina. Travis
Holcomb-Faye had 11 points and 10 assists, while Gabriel Mikulas had 11
points and 12 rebounds.
Tubbs was not offered a contract extension past 2001-02. He
made public before the season that this would be his last at TCU, and he
will leave without having a losing record in eight seasons.
Tubbs is 596-296 in 28 seasons overall, including stops at
Oklahoma, Lamar and Southwestern Texas. Tubbs is 156-96 at TCU.
East Carolina, which had won four of five games including a
51-46 upset of No. 9 Marquette on Tuesday, erased a 33-24 halftime deficit
with a 16-4 run to start the second half. The Pirates led 40-37 on Erroyl
Bing's 3-pointer.
The Pirates led by as much as five, but after TCU's seven
straight points, the lead went back and forth the final 10 minutes.
TCU will be the 10th seed for the C-USA tournament that
begins Wednesday in Cincinnati, facing No. 7 seed Louisville in the opening
round. Unless the Frogs win the tournament for an automatic NCAA berth,
Tubbs could still have more games in the expanded NIT field.
East Carolina, in its first season as a basketball member of
C-USA, will be the 11th seed in the tourney. The Pirates first-round
opponent will be No. 6 seed Houston, a team they defeated handily on
February 23 in Greenville.
Box Score
TCU 66, EAST CAROLINA 63
TCU (16-14)
Merriex 6-14 2-3 18, Dumont 3-9 0-0 6, Santee 5-16 4-4 15, Blount 3-10 0-0
8, Valsin 5-7 0-1 11, Brown 2-8 2-2 6, Boddicker 1-2 0-0 2, Paulk 0-2 0-0 0.
Totals 25-68 8-10 66.
EAST CAROLINA (12-17)
Bing 3-9 0-0 15, Mikulas 5-12 1-3 11, Badiane 3-6 2-2 8, Brown 6-18 0-0 14,
Holcomb-Faye 5-13 0-1 12, Foxx 2-2 0-0 4, Hawkins 0-3 0-0 0, Moore 2-8 0-0
6. Totals 26-71 3-6 70.
Halftime: TCU 33, East Carolina 24.
3-Point Goals: East Carolina 8-25 (Bing 2-2, Moore 2-6, Brown 2-6,
Holcomb-Faye 2-8, Hawkins 0-3); TCU 8-19 (Merriex 4-8, Blount 2-5, Valsin
1-1, Santee 1-5).
Assists: East Carolina 18 (Holcomb-Faye 10), TCU 17 (Santee 8).
Rebounds: East Carolina 47 (Bing 15), TCU 45 (Valsin 10).
Fouled Out: None.
Total Fouls: East Carolina 16, TCU 14.
Attendance: 4,204.
02/23/2007 10:59:38 AM
Copyright ©2002
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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