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Bing Has Career Night, but Gets Little Help
From Staff and AP Wire Reports
Box Score
GREENVILLE A few days
can make a lot of difference not necessarily for the better.
 East
Carolina, which less than a week ago drilled a school-record 17
three-pointers in a BCA Tourney win over Northwestern, came out cold as a
polar bear's butt in its home opener against Central Florida.
The Pirates shot
a miserable 14.3 percent on 4 of 28 field
goal attempts and found themselves buried beneath an 18-point
first-half deficit before coming out of hibernation with a valiant but
hopeless effort down the stretch.
In the end, ECU wound up on the short end of an 82-72 final
score that understates the severity of the beating.
While the Pirates were firing up bricks, UCF lit up the
basket for 58.1 percent in the first half and turned the heat up a notch
to 65 percent after intermission to brush aside ECU's belated comeback
attempt.
But don't blame forward Erroyl Bing for the Pirates'
impotence. The Largo, Fl, sophomore used both muscle and finesse to tally a
career-high and game-high 27 points from all ranges in what seemed at times
like a one-man effort to keep the contest from becoming a forfeit.
The physical Bing, who has scored in double figures in all
five of the Pirates' outings, was also the night's leading force around the
boards, pulling down 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end of
the floor.
Stephen
Graham scored 20 points to lead the Knights (2-1) and got help from Ray
Abellard, who came off the bench to contribute 13.
Central
Florida shot 61 percent from the field, but East Carolina (2-3) dominated
the offensive glass, pulling down 19 rebounds to just five for the Knights.
The Pirates
improved their shooting to 45 percent in the second half and outscored
Central Florida 47-39, but couldn't make up the deficit.
More than
half of ECU's shots 35 of 68 came from beyond the 3-point line, but only
20 percent of them connected, while UCF made 41 percent.
Paul Reed and
Joey Graham each had 10 points for Central Florida. Travis Holcomb-Faye and
Fred Primus scored 15 apiece for the Pirates.
Box Score: CENTRAL FLORIDA 82,
EAST CAROLINA 72
UCF: Dotson 1-3 2-4 4, Bodden 4-8 0-0 8,
Miller 2-3 5-6 9, J. Graham 3-5 3-5 10, S. Graham 9-14 1-2 20, Abellard 4-6
2-2 13, Thornton 2-4 0-0 6, Boyd 0-1 0-0 0, Reed 5-6 0-0 10, Moretti 1-1 0-0
2. Totals 31-51 13-19 82.
ECU: Moore 0-5 0-0 0, Bing 8-14 7-11 27,
Howard 1-3 0-0 2, Brown 3-14 7-7 13, Holcomb-Faye 5-8 5-10 15, Primus 5-16
2-4 15, Foxx 0-0 0-0 0, Hawkins 0-7 0-0 0, Boddie 0-1 0-0 0, Twitty 0-0 0-0
0. Totals 22-68 21-32 72.
Halftime UCF 43, East Carolina 25.
3-Point goals UCF 7-17 (Abellard 3-5, Thornton 2-4, J. Graham 1-3, S.
Graham 1-3, Bodden 0-2), East Carolina 7-35 (Bing 4-6, Primus 3-13,
Holcomb-Faye 0-1, Moore 0-2, Hawkins 0-6, Brown 0-7).
Fouled out None.
Rebounds UCF 36 (Bodden 6), East Carolina 41 (Bing 14).
Assists UCF 12 (J. Graham, Miller 3), East Carolina 9 (Holcomb-Faye 3).
Total fouls UCF 25, East Carolina 16. Technicals bench.
Attendance 3,062.
02/23/2007 10:59:40 AM
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