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C-USA Tourney: One and
done for Pirates
Tulane advances to face
top-seeded Memphis
From Electronic and Staff Reports
©2009 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Another season is in the
books for East Carolina basketball, with another chapter added to the
program's history of frustration in the Conference USA Tournament.
Junior guard Kevin Sims
scored 23 points to lead No. 8 seed Tulane to a 69-59 victory over the
ninth-seeded Pirates Wednesday night in the opening round of the league
tournament at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
East Carolina has not won
a game in the tourney since joining the conference in the 2001-02
season. On three occasions (2001-02, 2002-03 and 2004-05), the Pirates
didn't qualify to participate in what was then a 12-team event in a
14-team league.
The school's closest
encounter with a date in the second round came in the 2003-04 season,
when East Carolina
gave Louisville a first-round scare
before coming up on the short end of a 61-54 outcome.
For a good part of the
first half of Wednesday night's game, the Pirates (13-17) appeared to be
positioning themselves to break the hex — until Sims intervened. East
Carolina led by as much as seven on two occasions, including the 23-16
advantage it held at the 5:44 mark when Sims hit a three-pointer to
ignite a 16-0 run by Tulane (14-16) over a four-minute span that put the
Green Wave in charge 32-23.
Another Sims 3-pointer
halted an 11-0 second half surge by the Pirates that had closed the gap
to 51-45 with 6:32 remaining.
Sims, the only Tulane
player in double figures, connected on 7 of 11 from the field, including
5 of 7 from 3-point range.
Senior guard Sam Hinnant
scored 16 points and freshman forward Darrius Morrow added 13 points and
11 rebounds for the Pirates, who closed out the season with a six-game
losing streak.
Tulane earned a spot in
Thursday's round against top-seeded Memphis, the No. 4 team in the
nation. The Tigers had a first-round bye.
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BOX SCORE
CONFERENCE USA TOURNAMENT:
TULANE 69, EAST CAROLINA 59
Date: Wednesday, Mar. 11,
2009
Place: FedEx Forum, Memphis, TN
Attendance: 9,840
Officials: Rick Randall, Hal Lusk, Brent Barnaky
Technical Fouls: None
SCORE BY PERIODS 1
2 FINAL
East Carolina........ 25 34 - 59
Tulane............... 34 35 - 69
EAST CAROLINA (13-17)
PLAYER FG 3PT FT
R PTS MIN
Morrow............ f 3-7 0-0
7-9 11 13 33
Wynn.............. c 2-5 0-0
0-2 8 4 19
Legan............. g 1-6 1-4
0-0 3 3 26
Hinnant........... g 4-10 2-7 6-7
1 16 31
Young............. g 1-5 0-1
0-0 4 2 28
Turner.............. 3-5 2-2
0-0 1 8 19
Abrams.............. 4-9 1-5
0-0 4 9 28
Sherrod............. 2-4 0-0
0-0 0 4 16
TEAM................
TOTALS.............. 20-51 6-19 13-18 32
59 200
PERCENT............. 39.2 31.6 72.2
TULANE (14-16)
PLAYER FG 3PT FT
R PTS MIN
McQueen........... f 2-6 0-1
0-0 8 4 34
Puckett........... f 3-4 0-0
3-6 5 9 29
Louisme........... c 3-9 0-0
3-4 5 9 26
Richard........... g 3-4 1-1
0-0 1 7 17
Sims.............. g 7-11 5-7 4-4
0 23 35
Booker.............. 2-4 1-1
0-0 1 5 12
Rogers.............. 0-0 0-0
0-0 1 0 6
Mayhane............. 1-2 1-1
1-2 0 4 14
Vianney............. 4-8 0-1
0-0 3 8 25
Hogan............... 0-0 0-0
0-0 0 0 2
TEAM................
2
TOTALS.............. 25-48 8-12 11-16 26
69 200
PERCENT.............
52.1 66.7 66.7
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PAGE UPDATED
03/12/09 02:57 AM.
©2009 Bonesville.net and
other publishers. All rights rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Game accounts and
statistics may be compiled from various sources, including but not limited
to staff, East Carolina University, opposing team and Conference USA reports.
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