Road not getting any easier

By Brian Bailey
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East Carolina's basketball season continued its downward spiral over the weekend with a blowout loss to Central Florida in Orlando.

The Pirates, so competitive in the Jan. 2 matchup between the teams in Greenville, had no answer for the Knights' inside game in an 89-69 defeat. It's the first UCF season sweep over ECU since 2012.

This one wasn't even close. The Knights bolted out to a 60-32 halftime lead behind the inside play of 7'6" Tacko Fall and big Justin McBride.

McBride looks like he could star for the Knights on the gridiron. Fall played over the rim, while McBride pushed and shoved his way through the Pirates all afternoon long.

Now ECU returns home, desperate for a win to try and turn things around. Tulsa comes to town riding a three-game winning streak, so this will be a battle of teams heading in polar opposite directions.

Add in that Tulsa beat the Pirates 55-43 two weeks ago and the challenge intensifies.

Pirate coach Jeff Lebo knew his team would struggle inside after his first trip through the American Athletic Conference last season. The goal was to address that going into this year, but injuries and other circumstances have taken a toll. Now the Pirates are relegated to a strategy of having to hit from the outside in order to find success.

Success has been hard to come by of late. ECU is off to an 0-5 start in league play. After Tulsa's visit tonight, the Pirates hit the road to take on Memphis.

This may be a case where the light at the end of the tunnel really is a train.

South Florida has an eight-game losing streak. Lucky for the Pirates, the Bulls dot the ECU schedule twice in the second half of the season.

Of course, that slate also includes a road trip to undefeated Southern Methodist. We saw first hand last week just how good the Mustangs are this year, despite the probationary status.

The Pirate basketball road continues to be a bumpy one.

If there is a silver lining, Coach Lebo has shown in his years at East Carolina that his teams are usually playing their best basketball late in the season, for tournament time.

There is still plenty of season to go. Lebo and company hope the turnaround begins tonight at Williams Arena.

Tulsa comes to town at 11-6. One of those wins came against ECU.

Two weeks ago the Pirates were just 2-16 from the three-point line in the loss to the Golden Hurricane. ECU got off to a slow start, missing its first five shots while committing six turnovers.

Look for a better start tonight.

With this schedule in the American Athletic Conference, wins will be hard to come by. The Pirates will need a supreme effort and could certainly use a nice crowd to utilize the team's home court advantage.

Williams Arena was absolutely hopping for the SMU game last week. That kind of atmosphere will pay dividends down the road.

Perhaps it starts tonight.

BB

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