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Pirates, Golden Hurricane tip-off CUSA Tourney
No. 10 East Carolina and No. 7 Tulsa will meet at Noon (CT) today
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Conference USA Men’s Basketball Championship will commence today when seventh-seeded Tulsa takes on 10 th seeded East Carolina at Noon (CT) inside the FedExForum in Memphis. This match-up will feature clubs that appear to be peaking at the right time. The Golden Hurricane (17-12, 8-8) rebounded from a rough January—in which it lost three overtime games—to win seven of its last nine games with only losses at No. 1 Memphis and No. 2 UAB. Doug Wojcik’s team is essentially as hot as anyone in CUSA other than the league-leading Tigers and could be the team to keep an eye on of those playing a round one game. It looked as though the Pirates’ ship had sunk, following a 91-62 road loss at UTEP. Mack McCarthy’s squad had lost five straight and nine of its last ten—including four losses by 23 points or more. However, give the interim coach and his staff credit as they were able to rally the troops to win three straight—including an 84-83 upset of No. 3 Houston—before dropping a 77-75 heartbreaker in the regular season finale’ at Tulane on Saturday night. |
The lone regular season contest between the teams came a month ago in Greenville. Tulsa took a 66-61 win by outscoring East Carolina, 45-35, in the second half on the strength of the hot shooting of James Andrews. Andrews, who knocked down five three’, finished with 21 points. The team’s leading scorer Ben Uzoh (15.1 ppg) registered a double-double, as he had 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. The Pirates were led by the streaky-shooting James Legan, who hit five three’s and had 18 points in the game. Frontcourt players John Fields and Gabe Blair also reached double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
East Carolina has lived and died by the three this season. The Pirates are the league’s second-best three point-shooting team at 38.7 percent (UAB is first at 38.8 percent). The Pirates have hit 13 or more three-pointers in three of the last four games.
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For McCarthy’s club to pull off the upset and advance to meet UAB in Thursday’s quarterfinals, it must get a solid game from its backcourt. It can’t be a one-man show as it was in the first match-up. Hinnant, Jenkins and/or Farmer must also carry some of the scoring load this time around.
ECU must also keep Tulsa off the boards, as the Golden Hurricane pounded the Pirates on glass in the first meeting. Second chance points must be kept to a minimum.
If Tulsa can guard the arc and dominate on the boards, it should survive to play another day.
Article & Photos by Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum -
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