NCAA BASKETBALL ::: Morrow too much for Marshall [bk-022912]

Darrius Morrow made the most of his final home game, scoring a season-high 27 points, including two-thirds of his team's production in overtime, to lead East Carolina to a 69-68 victory over Conference USA foe Marshall Wednesday night in Greenville.

The only senior on the ECU roster, Morrow made his Senior Night exit in style, confounding the defensive efforts of the Thundering Herd's towering front line by making 8-of-16 field goal attempts and collecting eight rebounds. The 6-8, 245-lb. forward from Atlanta also connected on 11-of-17 from the charity strip.

The Pirates overcame a five-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation and applied a lockdown defense in the extra period to pull off the upset.

Marshall was only 1-of-11 from the field after the game went beyond regulation. That basket, a 3-pointer by senior guard Shaquille Johnson with three seconds left, combined with a pair of free throws by senior guard Damier Pitts earlier in the overtime, was not enough to overcome four free throws by Morrow and two by junior guard Miguel Paul that accounted for the final margin.

The Herd had a theoretical chance for a Hail Mary heave when Paul missed a pair of free throws with four-tenths of a second left, but senior forward Dago Pena didn't have time to get off a shot after gathering the rebound of Paul's second miss.

ECU junior forward Maurice Kemp joined Morrow in double figures with 10 points and hauled in 8 rebounds.

Sophomore forward Robert Sampson added 9 points on three 3-pointers and sophomore guard Paris Roberts-Campbell had 9 points and 4 steals for the Pirates.

Pitts and sophomore guard DeAndre Kane each had 17 points and Johnson added 10 for Marshall.

The bigger Herd dominated the backboards 40-25, getting 20 second chance points while giving up only 6.

But ECU committed only 11 turnovers while Marshall had 20, resulting in a 24-6 scoring swing in the Pirates' favor. ECU made 9 steals and surrendered only 3

The Herd led at the half 34-32 and survived regulation when Paul missed a 3-point shot just before the buzzer.

The win lifted the Pirates (13-15, 4-11 C-USA) out of a last place tie in the league race with Southern Methodist and Tulane. Marshall (17-12, 8-7) fell out of a fourth place tie with Central Florida and UAB with the setback.

East Carolina concludes the regular season with a trip to New Orleans for an 8 p.m. matchup with the Green Wave on Saturday.

The Pirates will face an opponent to be determined in the first round of the conference tournament at the FedExForum in Memphis next Wednesday.

BOX SCORE

EAST CAROLINA 69, MARSHALL 68 (OT)

Date: Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012
Place: Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, Greenville, NC
Attendance: 4,334
Records: ECU 13-15 (4-11 Conference USA); MU 17-12 (8-7)

SCORE BY PERIODS     1   2  OT   FINAL
Marshall            34 29   5 - 68
East Carolina       32 31   6 - 69

MU THUNDERING HERD
# PLAYER                    FG   3PT    FT R PTS MIN
.........................  ....  .... .... .. ... ...
01 Tinnon, Dennis...... f   4-8   0-0   1-2 12   9 38
02 Goff, Robert........ f   2-4   0-0   2-4 5   6 22
03 Pitts, Damier....... g 5-12   3-6   4-4 1 17 42
23 Johnson, Shaquille.. g   4-6   1-3   1-2 4 10 33
24 Kane, DeAndre....... g 7-17   1-4   2-5 6 17 35
04 Hanner, Jamir.........   0-0   0-0   0-0 0   0   0+
10 Pena, Dago............   1-5   1-5   0-0 2   3 26
11 Spikes, Nigel.........   1-1   0-0   0-0 4   2 17
34 Mbao, Yous............   2-3   0-0   0-0 5   4 12
TEAM.....................                    1
TOTALS................... 26-56 6-18 10-17 40 68 225
PERCENT.................. 46.4 33.3 58.8

ECU PIRATES
# PLAYER                    FG   3PT    FT R PTS MIN
.........................  ....  .... .... .. ... ...
01 Morrow, Darrius..... f 8-16   0-0 11-17 8 27 41
12 Sampson, Robert..... f   3-6   3-5   0-0 1   9 28
00 Paul, Miguel........ g   2-7   1-4   3-7 3   8 26
20 Bowden, Shamarr..... g   0-1   0-1   0-0 0   0   7
23 Straughn, Erin...... g   1-3   0-1   2-2 3   4 29
02 Kemp, Maurice......... 5-11   0-1   0-0 8 10 23
11 Gaines, Corvonn.......   1-3   0-2   0-0 1   2 34
22 Campbell, Paris.......   4-5   1-2   0-0 0   9 33
35 Morales, Darius.......   0-0   0-0   0-0 0   0   4
TEAM.....................                    1
TOTALS................... 24-52 5-16 16-26 25 69 225
PERCENT.................. 46.2 31.3 61.5

Fouled out: DeAndre Kane
Technical Fouls: DeAndre Kane
Officials: Mike Stuart, Les Jones, Hal Lusk