GREENVILLE — Play in the paint will be a key factor for the Pirates as they look to bounce back from their 63-58 road loss to Old Dominion at home against Charlotte today at 5 p.m.
East Carolina (4-2, Conference USA) has not lost at Minges Coliseum yet this season and in order to continue that trend it must find a way to slow down 49ers’ big man Chris Braswell.
The 6-8, 240 junior center enters today’s matchup leading Charlotte (3-2, Atlantic 10) with 18 points per game while pulling down eight boards a night and will present a difficult matchup for center Darrius Morrow and the rest of the Pirates’ frontcourt.
“Braswell is pretty good. He originally committed to Georgetown out of high school and I’ve been playing against him for the last three years and he’s a pretty solid player,” Morrow said. “We always have tough battles and I’ll be trying to get the best of him (today).”
Morrow, who is second on the team in scoring with 14.5 points per game, said that Braswell is tough to defend because of his unusual style of play.
“He’s has kind of an unorthodox game, he’s kind of unique in the way he plays, but I’m fine with that,” Morrow said. “You’ll see on Saturday, it’s kind of hard to describe (his style). He’s a great player and I just want to do my job defensively on him.”
East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo agreed with Morrow’s assessment of the Charlotte big man and said what makes him so challenging to defend is his knack of getting defenders in foul trouble.
“He’s got a great ability to draw fouls. He’s got a funny kind of game, he’s excellent in the post up situations. The best thing about him is that he is a crafty vet that has a great ability to draw fouls,” Lebo said. “He’s strong, he’s got size and pretty quick feet. A lot of their stuff goes through him so a big concern for us is being able to play him without fouling him.”
Fouling has been a big concern for Lebo so far this season and said his team must play more disciplined on defense.
“We have to play without fouling. We fouled too much last year, and in games this year that that we’ve struggled we’ve put people on the line too much,” Lebo said. “We have to be aggressive without unnecessary fouling.
“I don’t think our kids realize yet how bad fouling is. Occasionally, you have a good foul but when you foul too much then you have our better players on the bench and you put the opponent in one-and-one early and the two-shot foul. When you look at the box score the team that shoots the most foul shots wins the game a majority of the time.”
Charlotte returns four starters from last year in Braswell, along with guards Derrio Green (9.8 ppg), Jamar Briscoe (6.4 ppg) and Javariss Barnett (8.6 ppg).
The 49ers have also gotten a big boost from Georgia transfer Demario Mayfield, as the 6-5 guard is second on the team in scoring with 11.4 points per contest.
“A lot of what they do revolves around (Braswell) but they also have an SEC transfer in Mayfield who is their second leading scorer and has added a lot to their team,” Lebo said. “They’ve got experienced guards. Briscoe played and started for them last year and Green started and played major minutes for them last year too. … They are a team that’s talented and athletic and can score inside and out.”
The Pirates can put up some points too, but doing it on a consistent basis has been their biggest issue. Aside from Morrow and guard Miguel Paul, who is averaging a team-best 16.2 points per game, ECU is desperately trying find a reliable player or two that are capable of diversifying the offense.
“My biggest concern with the team this year is who will be our third and fourth scorers,” Lebo said. “One (scorer) is very easy to defend and two (scorers) are fairly simple to guard, but it gets hard to guard when you have consistency from the three spot and the four spot.
“We have had some different guys (be the third and fourth scorers) at different times and we have had games where he have not had any third or fourth scorers. That’s going to be an area that we will have to address this year.”
After Paul and Morrow, the Pirates do not have another double-digit scorer. Erin Straughn is third on the team with seven points per game, while Robert Sampson (6.3) and Austin Steed (6.2) are right behind them.