By By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — Any Pirates fan hoping that East Carolina hoops would provide a temporary escape from the disappointment stemming from Skip Holtz’s departure was only met with more grief as the 3,928 purple and gold supporters in attendance witnessed what might be the Pirates worst game of the season as they fell 74-55 to Houston on Saturday.
East Carolina (6-12, 0-4) shot 31 percent from the field, 20 percent from downtown and allowed 21 points off turnovers compared to scoring only nine off Cougars’ miscues.
Playing without promising sophomore power forward Darrius Morrow (12 ppg, 6.7 rpg), who has been suspended indefinitely after being arrested for misdemeanor pot possession, an already lackluster ECU offense looked even less stellar against a quality Houston defense that racked up 13 steals.
The Cougars (10-7, 3-1), who have the highest points per game average in Conference USA (84 ppg), where led by conference player of the year candidate Aubrey Coleman, who matched his average of 25 points while adding 11 rebounds and two steals.
Cougars’ forward Maurice McNeil took advantage of Morrow’s absence in the paint, and early foul trouble by ECU center Chad Wynn to tally 11 points and 15 boards.
After the game East Carolina coach Mack McCarthy did not attempt to sugar coat the loss.
“I think tonight was a culmination of a lot of things,” McCarthy said. “We have had a lot of distractions; we have had some tough losses. We weren’t very disciplined tonight in any phase of the game. We didn’t execute offensively, which led to problems of the defensive end because they got turnovers, or we took bad shots that led to fastbreaks. We took bad shots because of poor decision making and because of poor execution offensively.
“I don’t know if other distractions took a toll, but that’s my best guess. I have never seen anything quite like it. Everybody was frustrated and we didn’t handle a poor performance very well.”
One of only a few Pirates’ bright spot came at the 2:18 mark in the first half when Brock Young hit Jamar Abrams for a three-pointer to give the junior point guard his 414th career assist, making him the school’s all-time leader.
“(I felt) happiness and joy, I didn’t know I had it this early, but I’m going to keep making assists and do what I do,” Young said.
What Young and his teammates could not do on Saturday was hit a shot. Young, the team’s leading scorer with a 16 points per game average, shot a frigid 2-15 en route to 10 points.
Shooting guard Jontae Sherrod, the team’s second leading scorer struggled as well, hitting on only two of his 13 shot attempts for eight points.
“It was just one of those nights that everybody was off,” Young said. “We all have those nights from time to time and all you can do is just keep shooting. The shots didn’t fall. But if the shots don’t fall we can’t let that be the key to the game, we have to still play ‘D.’ We have to learn to stay together when things aren’t going our way.”
Daquan Joyner came off the bench and brought some production with him as he recorded his first double-double of his career tallying a team-high 12 points and 13 boards.
“It was my first career double-double, so I’m pretty excited about that,” Joyner said. “It’s kind of hard to get it in a loss, I would have liked to have had a win.”
Two former players that helped Young convert a fair share of those assists where in attendance Saturday as Sam Hinnant and James Legan looked on as Young eclipsed the assist mark.
It’s a safe bet East Carolina coach Mack McCarthy would have loved to see his former sharpshooters in a Pirates’ uniform as they no doubt would have helped the team shoot better then 3-15 from beyond the arc.
Despite all the offensive woes, the Pirates managed to cut the Cougars’ lead to 32-28 three minutes into the second half after a Erin Straughn triple.
Straughn started in place of Morrow and looked good as the freshman scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
From that point on the Cougars never let the Pirates get any closer and reeled off am 18-4 run that ended with a Coleman three-pointer.
The Pirates, who have now lost four of their last five games, will once again attempt to pick up their first conference win of the season on Jan. 23 when they travel to Southern Miss.
HOUSTON 74, EAST CAROLINA 55
HOUSTON (10-7)
S.Coleman 2-5 0-0 5, McNeil 4-10 3-6 11, Lewis 4-10 1-3 13, Wade 4-6 0-0 8, A.Coleman 8-15 7-9 25, Nixon 5-10 0-1 10, Haywood 0-1 0-1 0, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Tellis 0-0 0-0 0, Broughton 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Van Slyke 0-1 0-0 0, Washington 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 28-61 11-20 74.
EAST CAROLINA (6-12)
Abrams 3-5 0-1 7, Wynn 0-2 2-2 2, Young 2-15 5-6 10, Straughn 5-10 1-2 11, Sherrod 2-13 4-4 8, Sargent 1-2 0-0 3, Gaines 1-2 0-0 2, Salzano 0-1 0-0 0, Joyner 5-10 2-4 12. Totals 19-60 14-19 55.
Halftime—Houston 30-22. 3-Point Goals—Houston 7-17 (Lewis 4-8, A.Coleman 2-3, S.Coleman 1-3, Van Slyke 0-1, Wade 0-1, Haywood 0-1), East Carolina 3-15 (Abrams 1-1, Sargent 1-2, Young 1-6, Straughn 0-1, Gaines 0-1, Sherrod 0-4). Fouled Out—Abrams, S.Coleman, Wynn. Rebounds—Houston 40 (McNeil 15), East Carolina 42 (Joyner 13). Assists—Houston 11 (Wade 4), East Carolina 11 (Gaines, Young 3). Total Fouls—Houston 19, East Carolina 22. Technicals—Washington, Wynn. A—3,928.