By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — The Pirates have had a week to dwell on their most recent defeat, a 100-76 loss to Conference USA leaders UTEP last Saturday, and should be well prepared for their rematch with Rice on the road today at 3 p.m.
The last time these two teams met was on Jan. 30 when East Carolina admittedly showed up flat for its battle with the Owls, who came into Greenville searching for its first conference win of the season.
The Pirates obliged, playing a horrendous first half of basketball and allowing the Owls to take a 41-23 lead into halftime. East Carolina saved face with a more motivated performance in the second half of the game led by Darrius Morrow’s 20 points and 13 rebounds.
The sophomore forward’s double-double helped the Pirates cut the Owls’ lead to 51-49, but Rice was able to create separation down the stretch and leave Minges Coliseum with a 69-58 victory.
Cold shooting from beyond the three-point line plagued the Pirates as they hit on only six of their 30 shot attempts.
The Owls got strong play from a pair of promising freshmen in 6-7 forward Arsalan Kazemi and 6-2 guard Tamir Jackson.
Jackson tallied 18 points in the team’s first meeting, while Kazemi added 14. Rice also got a strong performance from 6-10 forward Trey Stanton, who tied Jackson with a team-high 18 points.
The Iranian born Kazemi is having a fantastic rookie season for Rice and is posting 11 points per game while pulling down a Conference USA-second best nine rebounds a night.
Jackson is posting 11.3 points per game and is sixth in the league in steals with 1.8 per game, while he is 12th in assists with 3.3 a night.
Rice heads into tonight’s game in the bottom of the C-USA standings with a x-x record, while ECU is 10th with an 8-16 (2-9) record.
Despite the effort of its promising freshmen, Rice is last in the Conference USA in scoring with a 64.7 average. However, ECU is last in the conference in defense, allowing 75.2 points a night.
Turnovers and poor shooting have been the Pirates’ Achilles’ heal all season. East Carolina is last in the Conference in TO’s per game and scoring margin as its 17 turnovers a night has contributed greatly to its -8.6 scoring margin. Rice has the second worst scoring margin in C-USA at 3.9.
Since the team’s Jan. 30th meeting the Owls have gone 1-4, with their one win coming in a non-conference game against Texas A&M International.
In its last outing, Rice hung with SMU for the better part of two halves before its offense bogged down and scored only two points in the final four minutes to lose 67-57 to the Mustangs.
East Carolina has gone 1-3 since its loss to Rice, with its one win being a 71-68 victory over Tulane.