From the Anchor Desk Tuesday, December 6, 2011 By Brian Bailey

Pirates look for more Morrow

By Brian Bailey
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

East Carolina hopes to snap a two-game losing streak tonight when Atlantic 10 member UMass visits Williams Arena for the first-ever matchup between the two teams.

In order to win, this East Carolina team will need much more from Morrow — as in senior forward Darrius Morrow.

Morrow was held scoreless on Saturday in the Pirates' loss to Charlotte. It was the first time in Morrow’s 99-game career that he failed to score a single point.

“If you thought you were surprised, how do you think I felt,” said ECU coach Jeff Lebo after the team practiced on Monday. “He was surprised. He wants to play well. He just never got into the flow. When he didn’t score early he was trying to make his moves too fast.

"He wasn’t aggressive in his post-ups, which he usually is. He was posting up six feet from the paint which is unlike him.”

Morrow knows he’ll be counted on to score, especially with this Pirate team struggling to find the basket.

“That was new to me,” said Morrow when asked about being shut out against the 49ers. “I usually don’t struggle like that. I just have to have a short memory of it all and just get ready to play tomorrow night.”

Morrow was 0-8 from the field in the Charlotte game.

“I was off my game,” Morrow explained. “I give credit to Charlotte. They had a good defensive game plan. It was mostly me, 80 percent mental and 20 percent what they did.

"I’m just going to come out tomorrow with a whole different focus and try to get back on track.”

The Pirates have been ice cold of late. East Carolina shot just 33 percent from the field in the loss to Old Dominion last week. The Pirates followed that up with a 32 percent effort against the 49ers.

Coming up tonight, the Pirates look to snap their mini-skid with a talented Massachusetts team coming to town.

“They are extremely athletic,” said Lebo. “They are extremely fast. They averaged (shooting) 28 threes a game. The average 17 offensive rebounds per game. They have a terrific point guard who has great speed.”

That speed is a huge concern. Lebo says his team hasn’t seen speed like this so far this season.

“They are the fastest team that we will have seen to date,” said Lebo. “They press every possession full court so we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

On offense, Lebo knows his team has to find a way to put the ball into the basket. It sounds so basic, but it’s extremely frustrating when the shots aren’t falling.

“We have to make them defend,” Lebo continued. “If we get into a running game with them, then that falls right into their style of play. When they make double-figure threes, then they usually win.”

East Carolina is just 1-7 against A-10 members since the 2006-07 season.

The Pirates host the Minutemen tonight, and then take the next ten days off for exams before visiting UNC-Greensboro on December 16th.

BB

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