East Carolina will look to post its fourth win in six games Wednesday night as it takes on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at the Donald W. Reynolds Center
The East Carolina Pirates won't be challenging for the AAC crown in their first season although they can scramble the standings with a few upsets in the closing weeks of the regular season. After knocking off Memphis an upset at Temple seemed like a possibility but the Owls had different plans in a 66-53 victory on Saturday.
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Temple took all the fight out of the Pirates with 16 point lead after 20 minutes before going in to cruise control the rest of the way. Both teams shot the ball in the 35%-37% range but the Owls won it with an 18-7 edge at the stripe. Terry Whisnant was the Pirates lone double digit scorer with 13 points on 5-13 shooting while BJ Tyson and Lance Tejada combined for 17 points. Michael Zangari led the team with six rebounds but did not score.
East Carolina and Tulsa are both coming off losses in their previous outing. The Pirates suffered a 13-point loss at Temple on Saturday, while the Golden Hurricane lost by 25, 70-45, at UConn last Thursday. It was Tulsa's second straight loss after opening conference play with 10 consecutive wins.
The Tulsa Golden Hurricane were the top dog in the American until the past week when an unblemished conference mark was no more on the heels of back to back defeats which dropped them to second behind Southern Methodist. The Golden Hurricane will be trying to regroup following a listless performance in a 70-45 beat down at Connecticut where the Huskies were up nine heading to the second half where they really poured it on. UConn dominated most areas on 51% marksmanship while Tulsa was limited to a mere 31.5% including a 5-20 effort from beyond the arc. Marquel Curtis paced three double figure scorers with 15 points and six pulls with D'Andre Wright and Rashad Smith adding ten points each and combining for eight boards. The rest of the team was a non factor with ten points.
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Terry Whisnant, who scored 13 points in Saturday's loss at Temple, remains the team's scoring leader at 12.9 ppg, but freshman B.J. Tyson isn't far behind at 12.6 ppg. Sophomore Caleb White is the third member of the Pirates to average double figures with 12.0 ppg to help make up the second-highest scoring trio in The American.
The third-highest scoring trio in the league is comprised of Tulsa's junior threesome of Shaquille Harrison, Rashad Smith and James Woodard with an average of 37.1 ppg. Woodard (14.3 ppg) and Harrison (14.1 ppg) rank fifth and sixth in the league in scoring.
The Pirates are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games following a S.U. loss and 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games overall. East Carolina are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 vs. American Athletic Conference and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record. The Golden Hurricane are 10-3 ATS in their last 13 games vs. a team with a losing S.U. record and 9-3 ATS in their last 12 games following a ATS loss. Tulsa are 16-6 ATS in their last 22 home games and 15-7 ATS in their last 22 home games vs. a team with a road winning % of less than .400.
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