GREENVILLE — There will be a ceremony to honor center Darrius Morrow at the start of East Carolina’s final home game against Marshall tonight but all the senior really wants is a win.
Victories have been hard to come by for the slumping Pirates (12-15, 3-11) who will face the Thundering Herd (17-11, 8-6) having lost five consecutive games, but Morrow would like to change that and close the book on his final game at Minges Coliseum with a “W.”
“I just want to come out and get a win,” Morrow said. “We’ve been on a losing streak and it would be nice go out with a win and just get a win period.”
There have been a lot of ups and downs for Morrow during his four-year stay with East Carolina but the good has outweighed the bad for the Georgia native. During his time with the Pirates the 6-8, 245-pounder has racked up 1,444 points which places fifth on the school’s all-time list, while his 758 rebounds stands at seventh.
Of all the points he scored, his 33 during a win over Marshall last season was the most he had in one game and is one of the many happy memories he will take with him when he leaves ECU.
“When we beat Marshall last year I scored the game-winner and had 33 points, I’ll never forget that night,” Morrow said. “We beat Charlotte here at the buzzer … We beat Memphis, I’ll never forget that. That’s something I’ll tell my family when I get old and gray.
“I had a good career here and I’m going to miss this place.”
The Pirates’ win over Memphis last season came on Senior Night and it will be hard to match the magnitude of that moment tonight. Morrow said he has no plans of trying to deviate from the way he normally plays the game and that he will be happy with a victory no matter how it happens.
“I’ve never really been about self, I just want to win the game,” Morrow said. “It doesn’t matter to me if I have one point or two points I just want to give the team my best effort.”
Morrow, who is averaging 13.1 points per game and 6.1 rebounds a night, will look to snap the team’s five-game losing streak against a Marshall team that won three in a row before falling 87-67 to Memphis its last time out.
Morrow has always shown flashes of talent throughout his career but he emerged as a star last season when he helped the Pirates earn their first and second Conference USA tournament victories in school history and was named to the all-tournament team.
Morrow is hoping that he and his teammates can recapture some of the late magic from last season as the regular season winds down.
“Hopefully we can make something happen these last few games, you never know,” Morrow said. “It’s never over in college basketball.”