AL MYATT | Three amigos lead ECU into Southern Miss [bk-030113]

They are East Carolina's three leading scorers — Maurice Kemp, Miguel Paul and Akeem Richmond. They all transferred to ECU and they're all averaging double figures in scoring for a Pirates basketball team that has a chance to do some special things in the weeks before the 2012-13 season becomes history.

ECU has the momentum of a two-game winning streak going into an 8 p.m. game at Southern Miss on Saturday and Coach Jeff Lebo's three amigos are a big reason why. The Pirates are 16-10 overall and 7-6 in Conference USA. They are assured of a second winning season in Lebo's three years on the job. Before he arrived from Auburn, ECU had not produced a winning record for 14 straight seasons.

The Pirates' best record in C-USA was 8-8 in 2010-11, Lebo's first season. They could equal or better that.

ECU will host league games with Tulane on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Marshall on March 9 at 5 p.m. before attention turns to the conference tournament in Tulsa the following week.

The Pirates are currently fourth in the league standings in terms of seeding for the C-USA Tournament. ECU is actually fifth but because Central Florida won't be in the conference event this season, the Pirates are a game ahead of Tulane, Tulsa and Alabama-Birmingham, who are each 6-7 in the league, in the battle for a first-round bye.

Southern Miss (21-7, 10-3) is coming off an 89-73 loss at Memphis in which an 18-3 run late in the first half lifted the Tigers to a 46-30 lead at the half. Southern Miss never recovered against Memphis, which is No. 17 in the USA Today coaches poll.

The last time ECU played Southern Miss was in Greenville on Feb. 16 when the Pirates had an 11-point lead with five minutes left. The Golden Eagles rallied to win 86-82 in overtime. Lebo set up a long range attack against Southern Miss' matchup zone and ECU dropped 15 shots from behind the arc. Kemp had just nine points, well below his 17.8-point average, but he dealt out six assists.

"Our game plan was to just to get the ball in our shooters' hands, just try to make 'em pay with the 3-point shot," Kemp said. "Akeem had a huge game (eight threes). I was playing the middle of the zone. I was really just trying to find the shooters on the wings. ... I think I did a good job of it. I think that was my season high in assists. I didn't have any turnovers either.

Kemp said the Pirates will need to get better results on the defensive end if they are in similar position in the late stages Saturday night. Dwayne Davis propelled Southern Miss's rally at ECU and finished with 23 points. He is coming off a 28-point effort against Memphis. Pirates post player Ty Armstrong, who averages 9.4 points and 5.1 rebounds, fouled out of the earlier game with the Golden Eagles with one point and no rebounds. Paul also exited via fouls after scoring five points and accumulating five assists.

"We can't have defensive lapses in the last few minutes of the game," Kemp said. " ... We look to cut them down from the jump, actually."

Junior Robert Sampson sometimes gets overlooked, which is not easy when you're 6-foot-8, but he's averaging 9.5 points and 9.2 rebounds.

"We've got to value the ball," Paul said. " ... We should have closed that game. I had a couple of costly turnovers. ... We can play with 'em. We definitely can. It comes down to executing the plan the same way the whole game. ... We know we can win on the road."

"We have to be ready to step in and knock down shots, shoot the ball with confidence," he said. "We just have to stop them. We've got to be more physical than them. Pretty much the same thing as when we played them last time. We had them on their heels. We just couldn't close out the game at the end.

"We have to knock down shots, handle the ball with confidence, not turn the ball over."

Traveling does not have a good connotation in basketball. It's a violation of the rules that involves moving with the ball without dribbling.

East Carolina's basketball team does a great deal of traveling in the traditional sense to the various outposts in Conference USA. Almost all of it goes better than the sojourn from Tulsa to Dallas last week.

After a 72-63 win at Tulsa on Wednesday night, ECU's plans to fly to Dallas had to be revised when flights were canceled due to a blizzard. The Pirates opted for a four-plus hour bus ride to Big D. The bus broke down just outside of Dallas, which resulted in a three-hour wait before another bus arrived to complete the trip. Jody Jones, the team's media contact, noted that the breakdown occurred in front of a Macaroni Grill.

"It was rough," Kemp said. "At least it didn't affect us on the court. Those two wins were big for us."

"We got our heads together and it was like 'We aren't going to go through all of this for nothing,' " said the senior point guard. "We just really concentrated on the basketball part of it and what we could control."

"It was some extra bonding time with my teammates and coaches," he said. "After a while, everybody was just drained and ready to get to the hotel and go to sleep. ... It made it that much better that we were able to overcome adversity, put all that behind us and get ready and get focused for the game. It made those wins that much better."

The Pirates have a charter flight scheduled for the Southern Miss trip this evening out of Greenville.

"I'm ecstatic," he said. "Don't have to go through all the airport stuff, undress and all that. We can fly right to Mississippi and fly right back."

The down time since the SMU game has given the speedy Paul a chance to get a banged-up left hand healed.

"I've been having like tape and other things going on with it," he said. "It's given me some time to let my wrist and finger heal."

Paul doesn't anticipate having to play with his wrist and hand taped up on Saturday night.

"My release on my shot won't feel funny," he said. "I've been trying to adjust to it the last several games, doing more facilitating than trying to score."

With Corvonn Gaines sustaining a season-ending injury, the Pirates need even more minutes from Paul, who transferred from Missouri.

"That's what I signed up for when I transferred here, a bigger role," he said. "I think I can handle it. I'm ready to play."

Kemp called Richmond "the microwave" after he scored 14 points in 11 minutes in an 89-78 win over Houston on Jan. 16. The Rhode Island transfer is averaging 10.3 points and 17 minutes. He dropped nine 3-pointers last Saturday in scoring a career high 29 points. He was named C-USA player of the week.

He has yet to start a game at ECU but spends his time on the bench getting prepared.

"There's a certain level of focus that you have to have," he said. "I know I'm pretty much going to go in at the 12-minute mark. While I'm on the bench I'm just getting myself focused, telling myself what I need to do when I get out there. For instance, I know I need to follow through on my shot."

One of the great strides ECU has made under Lebo's guidance has been in terms of road performance.

The Pirates are 9-14 in C-USA road games since he took over. In the three seasons prior, ECU was 5-19 away from home in league contests. The Pirates' average score in relation to their opponents on the road in the 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons for those 24 games was minus-13.6 points per game.

In the Lebo era, that margin has dwindled to minus-5.3 points per game. The Pirates are staying in games much better when they aren't in the empowering environment of Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

This year's team is 4-3 in C-USA road games and the scoring differential is a scant minus-1.1 points per game. The four C-USA road wins to date are a school record.

Lebo says mental toughness is a key ingredient to success away from home. The Pirates must have it going on between the ears.