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Pirates extend milestone
season
From electronic and staff reports
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
East Carolina went on a 23-7
run over a 7-minute span midway through the second half to break open a
see-saw battle and pull away from Central Florida for a 75-60 victory
Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the Conference USA
Tournament in El Paso.
In a season of significant
accomplishments by the Pirates, the win set a precedent in that it was
their first in the league's annual tourney since joining C-USA ten years
ago.
Over the past two weeks,
ECU (17-14) locked in its first winning season in 14 years and finished
the regular season with an 8-8 record in conference play. The program
had never previously recorded more than five C-USA wins in a season.
Junior forward Darrius
Morrow scored 6 quick points on a pair of field goals and two free
throws to ignite the Pirates' breakaway surge. ECU trailed 43-41 when
Morrow's first basket came at the 14:57 mark.
After Morrow's spurt,
several of his teammates joined the scoring parade. When the run was
over, the Pirates had a comfortable 64-50 lead with 7:38 remaining.
Morrow, who hit 7-of-13
field goal attempts, scored 18 points to lead the Pirates.
He got double-digit
offensive support from senior forward Jamar Abrams and freshman forward
Robert Sampson.
Abrams had 15 points on
5-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, while Sampson
added 12 points and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field, including
3-of-3 from behind the arc.
Sophomore forward Keith
Clanton scored 15 points and junior Isaac Sosa contributed 11 for the
Golden Knights.
UCF led at the half 39-34
on 59.1 percent shooting, but lost its touch after intermission, making
only 28 percent of its attempts and only 11.1 percent of its 3-point
tries.
Over the course of the
game, ECU converted 46.3 percent of its field goal tries, including 58.8
percent from long range.
The turnover battle also
factored into the outcome. The Pirates, who committed only 8 miscues,
outscored the Knights 26-7 off turnovers as UCF had 16 giveaways.
ECU point guard Brock
Young was responsible for much of the disruption encountered by Central
Florida's ball handlers. The senior playmaker had 5 steals to go along
with 9 points and 7 assists.
The win completed a
three-game sweep of the Knights this season by ECU. The Pirates prevailed over the Golden Knights
74-62 on Jan. 19 in Orlando and
68-61
on Feb. 5 in Greenville.
Now, East Carolina turns
its focus to a bigger challenge. The Pirates will face top-seed UAB, which had
a first-round bye, today
at 1 p.m.
ECU
was
dominated by the Blazers 66-48 last Saturday in
Birmingham and
dropped a 66-59 decision on Jan.
17 in Greenville.
Today's quarterfinals and
Friday's semifinal matchups will be televised by CBS College Sports.
The championship game, set
for a network broadcast by CBS, will be played on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
Conference USA Tournament Scoreboard & Schedule
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BOX SCORE
EAST
CAROLINA 75, CENTRAL FLORIDA 60
Date:
Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2011.
Event: Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship.
Place: Don Haskins Center, El Paso, TX.
Attendance: 6,841.
Records: ECU 17-14; UCF 19-11.
SCORE BY PERIODS 1
2 FINAL
Central Florida 39 21
- 60
East Carolina
34 41 - 75
CENTRAL FLORIDA GOLDEN KNIGHTS
(19-11)
# PLAYER FG 3PT FT
R PTS MIN
10 Dwight McCombs...... f 1-2 0-0
1-2 5 3 16
21 P.J. Gaynor......... f 3-5 0-0
2-3 4 8 17
33 Keith Clanton....... f 6-8 3-3
0-0 4 15 32
05 Marcus Jordan....... g 1-9 0-3
7-11 5 9 35
11 Isaac Sosa.......... g 3-7 3-6
2-3 1 11 30
02 Jarvis Davis.......... 0-0 0-0
0-0 1 0 2
03 A.J. Rompza........... 1-5 0-3
0-0 4 2 31
12 Taylor Young.......... 0-1 0-1
0-0 0 0 1
14 Dogukan Kuzucan....... 1-1 0-0
0-0 0 2 1
15 Dave Diakite.......... 1-1 1-1
0-0 0 3 4
25 A.J. Tyler............ 2-6 1-4
0-0 1 5 18
32 Isaiah Sykes.......... 0-0 0-0
0-0 0 0 5
41 Tom Herzog............ 1-2 0-0
0-0 1 2 8
TEAM.....................
4
TOTALS................... 20-47 8-21 12-19 30 60 200
PERCENT.................. 42.6 38.1 63.2
EAST CAROLINA
PIRATES
(17-14)
# PLAYER FG 3PT FT
R PTS MIN
01 Darrius Morrow...... f 7-13 0-0
4-4 12 18 31
21 Jamar Abrams........ f 5-9 4-5
1-2 2 15 15
11 Corvonn Gaines...... g 1-2 1-1
2-2 1 5 25
23 Erin Straughn....... g 1-3 1-2
2-2 2 5 24
24 Jontae Sherrod...... g 3-14 0-5
1-3 2 7 35
03 Petar Torlak.......... 0-1 0-0
0-0 0 0 1
10 Brock Young........... 2-4 1-1
4-6 4 9 31
12 Robert Sampson........ 4-4 3-3
1-1 3 12 24
30 Wakefield Ellison..... 0-1 0-0
0-0 1 0 4
33 Chad Wynn............. 2-3 0-0
0-0 2 4 9
35 Darius Morales........ 0-0 0-0
0-0 1 0 1
TEAM.....................
3
TOTALS................... 25-54 10-17 15-20 33 75 200
PERCENT.................. 46.3 58.8 75.0
Officials:
Duke Edsell,Rick Crawford, John Hamption.
Technical Fouls: Diakite 2 (ejected), Gaines, Morrow.
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PAGE UPDATED
03/13/11 03:19 AM.
©2011 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 contributions and East Carolina University, opposing team and Conference USA reports.
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