Conference USA Basketball

Recap of Wednesday, February 1st games

Marshall 72, East Carolina 66
ECU rolled off the first 5 points of the game, but saw nothing but Marshall’s backside as they slumped to 1-6 in C-USA play. Mark Patton continued to lead the way for the Herd with 17 points along with his 7 rebounds. Senior Corey Rouse tried to match Patton, but his 15 points and 9 boards just wasn’t enough as Marshall improves to 2-6 in conference play and snaps their 4 game losing streak. ECU is home to Houston on Saturday while Marshall travels to Tulane.

#3 Memphis 84, Tulsa 61
A mismatch on paper became a mismatch in reality as Memphis continued their run through Conference USA and recorded their 20th win on the season. Tulsa came in as the league’s lowest scoring team while Memphis came in as the highest. The disparity became apparent last in the first half when Rodney Carney went on a 12-0 run that included three dunks that will be replayed on ESPN. Carney finished with 19 and Darius Washington Jr. contributed 22, including 3-6 from behind the arc, in the rout.

The Tigers forced 19 first half turnovers, but Tulsa 59% shooting saw them only down nine at the break. Brent McDade led Tulsa with 18 and Anthony Price contributed 15 in a reserve role. Memphis was the highest ranked team to ever visit the Reynolds Center and Tulsa is now 1-30 all-time against teams ranked third or higher. Tulsa falls to 2-4 in the conference and 7-12 overall. Memphis travels to Rice on Saturday while Tulsa hosts UTEP.

Houston 63, UTEP 57
Oliver Lafayette had 16 points to lead four Houston players in double figures on Wednesday night. The Cougars forced the Miners into 15 first half turnovers, but only led by 7 at halftime. UTEP was led by Edgar Moreno’s 18 points and John Tofi’s double-double as they out rebounded the Cougars 45-27 on the night. UTEP was able to make things interesting down the stretch as the Cougars failed to make their free throws to ice the game, shooting 9 for 21 on the night. UTEP will travel to Tulsa this weekend while Houston travels to ECU.

Tulane 59, SMU 56
Tulane never trailed and Quincy Davis continued to torch C-USA defenses as Tulane withstood a late SMU comeback to win 59-56. Davis scored 25 on 8-13 shooting and also hit 9-11 free throws. Bryan Hopkins continued his all-CUSA caliber play with 17 points in the loss. Hopkins has averaged over 20 points in his last 4 C-USA games. With the win, Tulane improves to 3-4 in the conference and is now in 7th place. SMU falls to 2-4 in conference play, 10-9 overall. SMU hosts Southern Miss on Saturday and Tulane hosts Marshall.

by John Griffin, CUSA-fans.com Basketball Staff Writer