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Pirates with 'heart' keep hopes alive
Box Score
ECUPirates.com Game Story
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Season-to-Date, Game-by-Game Scores, Attendance
& Links
GREENVILLE — Four days
after
laying a 71-46 whipping on a No.
10 Louisville team that's in the mix for a high seed in the NCAA's Big
Dance, Texas Christian was yanked back to reality by an East Carolina
squad fighting for one of the bottom spots in the Conference USA
Tournament.
A pair of seniors led the
way for ECU, with Derrick Wiley scoring 23 points and Erroyl Bing adding
18 points and 15 rebounds in the Pirates' 75-70 win over the Horned
Frogs on Saturday night.
Sophomore Belton Rivers
contributed 16 points for ECU (11-12, 3-10 Conference USA), which led by
12 at the half and never trailed in the game but had to fend off a late
rally by TCU that trimmed the margin to as little as 2 points in the
final minutes.
Corey Santee led the
Horned Frogs (10-13, 6-6) with 18 points. Marcus Shropshire added 16
points, Nucleus Smith had 13 and Chudi Chinweze added 12.
The Pirates are in a
dogfight with Houston, South Florida and Tulane
to land a spot in the league tournament by avoiding a finish as one of
the bottom two teams in the 14-team league standings.
ECU coach Bill Herrion
virtually gushed over the surging effort of his team as the stakes have
gotten bigger down the league stretch.
"I can't be more proud of
what these kids are giving me, my staff, the fans and the university,"
Herrion said after the game. "They are just playing their hearts out
right now. I think people should be proud of these kids.
"This is the best that our
basketball team has played in the five years that I have been here."
East Carolina led by as
much as 15 points in the first half when Bing's 3-pointer made it 46-31
with a minute before the break. Shropshire scored on a 3-pointer of his
own to narrow the score to 46-34 at halftime.
The Pirates kept the lead
in double digits for much of the second half. But Santee hit one shot
from the line at 7:48, then scored on a layup about a minute later to
make the score 67-56, starting a 16-8 run that cut ECU's lead to 5 at
the final buzzer.
It was the second straight
win for the Pirates, who defeated Tulane 76-66 on Wednesday night after
a string of close losses to conference power teams Charlotte, Memphis
and UAB.
ECU will now have a week
to reload before hosting South Florida next Saturday in a 1 p.m. game
which will be televised by ESPN Plus. It will be the final home game of
the season for the Pirates, who will will close out their regular season
slate with road games against Marquette (Wed., Mar. 3) and Southern
Mississippi (Sat., Mar. 6).
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BOX
SCORE East
Carolina 75, Texas Christian 70
Records: East Carolina 11-12, 3-10
C-USA; TCU 10-13, 6-6.
TCU 70
Player FG FT
PTS
Smith
3-6 5-6 13
Santee
4-12 8-11 18
Shropshire 6-12
0-0 16
Chinweze 5-10
2-2 12
Pierce
0-4 1-2
1
Sloan
0-0 0-0
0
Ibikunle 0-0
0-0 0
Curtis
2-4 3-3
7
Adams
0-0 0-0
0
Walsin
1-3 1-1
3
Totals 21-51
20-25 70
ECU 75
Player FG FT
PTS
Robinson 2-5
0-0 4
Badiane
3-4 0-1
6
Wiley
9-20 4-6 23
Bing
5-15 4-4 18
Cook
5-8 5-8 16
Rivers
1-3 0-0
3
McNeil
0-2 0-0
0
Mackay
0-0 1-2
1
Rouse
0-3 4-6
4
Grindley 0-0
0-0 0
Totals 25-60
18-27 75
Halftime: East Carolina 46-34.
3-point goals: Texas Christian
8-18 (Shropshire 4-7, Smith 2-2, Santee 2-5, Pierce 0-2, Curtis
0-2); East Carolina 7-15 (Bing 4-6, Cook 1-1, Wiley 1-2, Rivers 1-2,
Robinson 0-2).
Fouled out: Chinweze, Badiane.
Rebounds: TCU 29 (Chinweze 7);
ECU 43 (Bing 15).
Assists: TCU 13 (Shropshire 6);
ECU 10 (Cook 7).
Total fouls: TCU 22; ECU 22.
Technical fouls:
Attendance: 5,255. |
02/23/07 11:01 AM
From Associated
Press and ECU reports with Bonesville.net staff contributions. Copyright 2004. All
rights rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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