Pirates’ furious rally falls short in 82-76 loss at Houston

East Carolina suffers fifth straight defeat

Trailing 74-50 with less than eight minutes to play, the Pirates were seemingly down for the count at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday night.

However, struggling East Carolina (9-9, 0-5), which suffered its fifth straight loss, employed a press that created all sorts of problems for Houston and allowed it to almost complete a highly improbable comeback.

The Cougars (10-9, 2-4) established their presence in the paint early and led 25-10 at the midway point of the first half.

ECU used two trifectas by Shamarr Bowden to produce a 12-2 run and close to within five at 27-22 with just over six minutes remaining in the half.

However, Houston quickly extended its lead back to as many as 13 points before carrying a 42-31 advantage into the locker room. The Cougars outscored the Pirates, 26-6, before intermission.

The Pirates started the second half strongly, as Miguel Paul produced back-to-back three’s and Erin Straughn connected on a triple to slice the ECU deficit to 44-40 with 18:32 to play.

Over the next ten-plus minutes, though, the Houston margin ballooned to 24. Jonathan Simmons scored 11 straight points to help give his club a 74-50 lead with 7:46 left.

After producing a couple of turnovers with its press, East Carolina exploded for 11 unanswered points to get within 74-61 with nearly six minutes left on the clock.

Houston coach James Dickey called multiple timeouts to settle his team, but to no avail.

The Cougars continued to get hounded by the Pirates and succumb under the pressure.

With 2:23 remaining, Robert Sampson sunk a jumper to pull ECU within 1 at 76-75 and the Pirates had outscored Houston, 25-2, in just over six minutes of action.

From that point, ECU had multiple chances to pull out the unlikely victory, but it was unable to make the winning plays in crunch time—as has been the case in seven of the Pirates’ nine losses to date.

The Cougars converted four of six from the charity stripe in the final minute and change to prevent itself from snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

After scoring just two first-half points, Miguel Paul finished with a game-high 23 for ECU. Shamarr Bowden, who has struggled of late, hit four three-pointers and ended his night with 12 points. Erin Straughn also had 12 for the Pirates. Sampson had 12 rebounds for a Pirate team that was once again dominated on the glass.

Jonathan Simmons and Alandise Harris tallied 19 each for Houston while TaShawn Thomas had a double double for the Cougars with his 17-point, 12-rebound effort.

The Cougars turned the ball over 20 times, but held a commanding, 48-34, advantage on the boards and outscored ECU, 42-20, in the paint. Houston concluded the game at 50 percent (31-of-62) from the floor while the Pirates were just 37.9 percent (25-of-66).

After its two-game road trip to Texas, East Carolina will now return home to square off with Southern Miss. Tip-off with the Golden Eagles is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Check back with cusa-fans.com for a preview of that contest.