021211 NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL ::: Marshall 78, East Carolina 65 ::: Too little, too late for Pirates [bk]

East Carolina mounted a frantic second half rally but ran out of momentum before it could dig out of a mammoth hole and prevent Marshall from escaping Williams Arena with a 78-65 Conference USA victory Saturday evening.

Junior guard Damier Pitts scored a career-high 28 points to help the Thundering Herd (16-9, 4-6 C-USA) settle accounts for an 82-81 loss to ECU on Jan. 22 in Huntington, WV.

Marshall out-shot, out-rebounded and generally out-played the Pirates, cruising to a 34-21 halftime lead and accelerating to a 27-point advantage over the first six minutes of the second frame before ECU (13-11, 5-5) began climbing out of the abyss.

A 3-pointer by senior guard Brock Young ignited a 30-8 East Carolina run that lasted 9 minutes. The comeback attempt lost steam after a jumper by Young cut the deficit to 5, at 58-53, with 5:09 left.

Pitts converted a layup to launch a game-ending 20-12 surge by Marshall that sealed the outcome.

Senior guard Jontae Sherrod scored 19 points, Young had 18 and sophomore guard Erin Straughn contributed 10 for the Pirates.

Pitts got offensive support from junior guard Shaquille Johnson, who had 14 points, and freshman guard DeAndre Kane, who added 12.

The Thundering Herd hit 56.8 percent from the floor, including 50 percent from 3-point range. ECU converted 39.7 percent of its field goal attempts, 28.6 percent from behind the arc.

The Herd's victory margin could have been much larger but for a huge discrepancy in favor of the Pirates in terms of turnovers. ECU had 28 takeaways while giving the ball up only 11 times.

The attendance of 6,741 marked ECU's biggest home crowd of the season, surpassing the 6,567 benchmark set the previous Saturday when the Pirates defeated Central Florida 68-61.

The Pirates continue league play on Wednesday with a visit to Tulsa for an 8:05 p.m. matchup. The Golden Hurricane is 13-11 overall, 6-4 in the conference, after coming out on the short end of a 58-57 thriller at Central Florida Saturday evening.

BOX SCORE

MARSHALL 78, EAST CAROLINA 65

Date: Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011.
Place: Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, Greenville, NC.
Attendance: 6,741.
Records: ECU 13-11, 5-5 Conference USA; Marshall 16-9, 4-6.

SCORE BY PERIODS        1   2  FINAL
Marshall               34 44 - 78
East Carolina          21 44 - 65

MARSHALL THUNDERING HERD (16-9, 4-6 C-USA)
# PLAYER                    FG   3PT    FT R PTS MIN
00 Johnny Thomas....... f   4-9   0-1   1-2 5   9 38
30 Tirrell Baines...... f   2-6   0-1   2-2 8   6 24
11 Nigel Spikes........ c   0-0   0-0   1-2 7   1 15
03 Damier Pitts........ g 8-12   5-8   7-8 2 28 35
24 DeAndre Kane........ g   4-6   1-3   3-4 7 12 19
04 Johnny Higgins........   0-0   0-0   0-0 0   0   2
10 Dago Pena.............   1-3   1-2   0-1 2   3 19
21 Orlando Allen.........   1-1   0-0   0-0 2   2 10
23 Shaquille Johnson.....   4-5   2-3   4-6 4 14 27
25 Aundra Williams.......   1-2   0-0   1-2 5   3 11
TEAM.....................                    2
TOTALS................... 25-44 9-18 19-27 44 78 200
PERCENT.................. 56.8 50.0 70.4

EAST CAROLINA PIRATES (13-11, 5-5 C-USA)
# PLAYER                    FG   3PT    FT R PTS MIN
01 Darrius Morrow...... f   2-8   0-0   3-5 2   7 34
21 Jamar Abrams........ f   1-1   1-1   0-0 1   3 15
11 Corvonn Gaines...... g   3-7   1-3   1-5 4   8 30
23 Erin Straughn....... g   3-6   3-6   1-2 3 10 27
24 Jontae Sherrod...... g 7-14   1-6   4-7 2 19 37
03 Petar Torlak..........   0-1   0-0   0-0 0   0   1
10 Brock Young........... 7-15   2-7   2-4 0 18 28
12 Robert Sampson........   0-6   0-5   0-0 6   0 17
30 Wakefield Ellison.....   0-0   0-0   0-0 0   0   8
35 Darius Morales........   0-0   0-0   0-0 1   0   3
TEAM.....................                    3
TOTALS................... 23-58 8-28 11-23 22 65 200
PERCENT.................. 39.7 28.6 47.8

Officials: Kipp Kissinger, Steve Divine, Charles Robinson.
Technical Fouls: Damier Pitts, Brock Young.