By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — The trials and tribulations of the young Pirates’ basketball team continued as ECU experienced another growing pain in the team’s most recent loss, an 82-74 defeat at the hands of VCU.
East Carolina held its own against a quality Rams team, but in the end the youthful Pirates (5-8) who feature only one senior and six freshmen, could not close out the game.
The Pirates held a lead early in the second half, and were within three points of VCU with under three minutes left in the game, but the Rams ripped off a 9-0 run to seal the deal.
East Carolina hopes to eliminate the need for late heroics today when it faces off against struggling N.C. Central team that comes into Minges Coliseum with a 2-11 record.
The Eagles, whose last victory was an 82-63 thumping of Carver Bible College on Dec. 5, are in the midst of a four-game losing streak. The Pirates, whose last victory game on Dec. 19 when they topped St. Andrews 74-69, have lost two straight games, both of which were close contests.
Junior point guard Brock Young continues to guide the Pirates in the right direction as his 6.5 five assists per game is fifth in the nation. Young, who also leads ECU in scoring with 15 points per game, is 22 assists away from breaking the Pirates’ all-time assists mark of 413 held by Travis Holcomb-Faye (2000-03).
Another encouraging sign was the play of 6-6 junior forward Jamar Abrams who poured in a career-high 26 points against VCU the last time out. On the season, Abrams is posting 11 points per game and five boards a night.
Junior guard Jontae Sherrod is second on the team in scoring with 12 points a night, while sophomore forward Darrius Morrow is right behind him with 11.7 a night to go along with his team-high seven rebounds a game. Center Chad Wynn is a good game away from joining the rest of the starters in double-figure scoring as he enters today’s 3 p.m. tip-off against the Rams averaging 9.7 points per game and 5.9 rebounds.
The play of Morrow and Wynn on the boards has given ECU a plus-2 average per game in rebounds, but turnovers continue to haunt the team as it has a -4 assist/turnover ratio.
N.C. Central is led by 6-3 junior guard C.J. Wilkerson and his 15.6 points per game, while fellow guard Vincent Davis is tallying 10.9 points a night.