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ECU clips Owls, aims for Golden Eagles

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Senior forward Darrius Morrow scored 16 points and dished out five assists and junior guard Erin Straughn had 13 points, 11 rebounds and a pair of blocks to help No. 10 seed East Carolina knock off seventh seed Rice 68-66 Wednesday in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament in Memphis.

The Pirates made up a six-point deficit and forged ahead over the final eight minutes, taking the lead for good on a layup by junior forward Maurice Kemp with 57 seconds remaining. Kemp finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

In a game that featured eight ties and 13 lead changes, East Carolina established dominance of the backboards in the second half to gradually wrest the advantage in the see-saw affair.

"That was big," said ECU coach Jeff Lebo after the game. "Early in the season, our first six games, we were just getting crushed on the glass, just manhandled. We were losing, on the boards, by 16 or 18. But, as the season went on, we have done a much better job of coming down the stretch and keeping the opposing teams off of the glass. And we did a lot of drills to work on that."

After being outrebounded 20-14 before intermission, the Pirates won the battle of the caroms 23-10 in the second frame and finished with a 20-2 advantage on second-chance points scored.

The glaring swing in his team's rebounding fortunes was not lost on Rice coach Ben Braun.

"In the first half, I thought we established ourselves on the boards defensively and we had the edge rebounding," Braun said after the game. "In the second half, I thought the key to ECU's turnaround was them getting offensive putbacks and reloads and that really hurt us."

Freshman guard Paris Roberts-Campbell produced 12 points for East Carolina on four 3-pointers, including a pair of back-to-back bombs that helped dampen a 13-4 Owls run to start the game.

Junior forward Arsalan Kazemi had 10 points and 12 rebounds and senior forward Lucas Kuipers added 10 points for Rice (17-15).

The Pirates (15-15) will try to keep their season alive today in a 1 p.m. matchup against No. 2 seed Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles, top seed Memphis, third seed Tulsa and No. 4 seed Central Florida had first round byes on Wednesday.

In a pair of regular season matchups against USM, East Carolina lost a 78-76 upset bid in Hattiesburg on Jan. 4 and was defeated 72-60 in Greenville on Jan. 25.

A win by the Pirates would propel them into the semifinals for the second year in a row. East Carolina got past UCF in last season's first round and stunned No. 1 seed UAB in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual tourney champion Memphis one step short of the title game.

03/08/2012 08:48:28 AM
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