Pirates tangle with Tigers in Memphis before hosting Houston

After suffering setbacks in their first two CUSA games, the going will only get tougher for the East Carolina men’s basketball team as a trip to Memphis and home date with high-scoring Houston are next on the docket.

The Pirates (6-10, 0-2) have lost four of their last five and fell to Marshall, 83-65, on Saturday in Greenville.

Junior point guard Brock Young posted a career-high 26 points against the Herd and leads the club with his 16.1 per game mark. He leads CUSA in assists with 6.4 per contest and also shoots nearly 82 percent from the free throw line. Young’s assist mark ties him for fourth nationally.

Sophomore forward Darrius Morrow also continued his solid play, as he finished with 15 points and seven boards versus Marshall.

ECU, which has struggled to value the ball in many games this year, committed just nine turnovers against Marshall. However, the Pirates shot less than 40 percent from the floor and just 2-of-13 from three-point range.

Junior Jamar Abrams, who had begun to play much more consistently, had just one point in 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Jontae Sherrod finished with just seven. The Pirates, who sometimes go no more than seven deep, have used the same starting five in all 16 games and four of those five starters play more than 31.5 minutes per game. With such a short bench, East Carolina can ill-afford to receive just eight points from this veteran duo that comprises the team’s top three-point threats.

Memphis is 11-4 under first-year coach Josh Pastner. Pastner, who was an assistant under John Calipari and is the third youngest coach in Division I, led his Tigers to their NCAA record-tying 50 th straight regular season conference victory on Saturday in Hattiesburg. However, Southern Miss didn’t allow Memphis to escape without sweating it out down the stretch. The Golden Eagles rallied from a 41-26 halftime deficit to take a one-point lead with just over six minutes left, but the Tigers used two Willie Kemp free throws with five seconds left to notch the win. Memphis mustered just a season-low 18 points in the second half of the 59-57 victory.

Duke transfer and Memphis native Elliot Williams leads the way for his hometown team. Williams, a sophomore guard, averages nearly 20 points per game and tallied a career-high 33 points on the strength of eight trifectas versus USM. He also distributes the ball well with nearly four assists per contest.

Roburt Sallie, Doneal Mack and Wesley Witherspoon also score in double figures for Memphis. The trio averages just over ten points per game. Will Coleman and Pierre Henderson-Niles are the team’s top rebounders, as they pull down 6.3 and 4.9 boards, respectively.

While this Memphis team isn’t receiving votes in either poll, make no mistake about the amount of talent it possesses. Three of the Tigers losses were to teams currently ranked in the top nine and two of those were competitive contest. They will have too much athleticism and length for East Carolina and should beat the Pirates without much trouble.

Following the tough test in Memphis, ECU will return home with the tall order of slowing down high-scoring Houston.

The Cougars (8-7, 1-1), who have dropped four of five after a 7-3 start, will host UTEP on Wednesday before making the trek to Greenville on Saturday. Tom Penders’ club, which puts up nearly 85 points per game, is led by the nation’s leading scorer Aubrey Coleman. The senior guard averages 25.2 points and 7.1 rebounds. He gets to the free throw line over nine times per game.

Kelvin Lewis, who is the team’s top three-point shooter with 57 trifectas, is second on the team with his 17.7 per game mark.

Maurice McNeil is the team’s top rebounder. He pulls down nearly seven per contest.

The Cougars, like Memphis, get after you defensively and force 19 turnovers while committing less than nine. They do, however, give up 78.7 points per game.

With the Pirates playing only seven or eight players significant minutes and the starting five being forced to carry far too much of the load, Houston—which plays ten players more than ten minutes per game—will wear down the shorthanded Pirates even if ECU manages to hang around to the mid-point of the second half.

East Carolina will end the week still searching for its first CUSA win after what will likely be double figures losses to two of the league’s top teams.