GREENVILLE — In a season filled with streaks the Pirates are hoping that Wednesday’s 69-68 overtime win over Marshall can kick off one of the winning variety as they head into their regular season finale and prepare for the upcoming Conference USA tournament.
Wednesday’s victory over the Thundering Herd put an end to a six-game slide for East Carolina (13-15, 4-11) and if history holds true it means there could be a few more on the way.
Not since the first two games of the season has ECU not packaged a win with another win or a loss with another loss, which could be good news for the Pirates as they head into the C-USA tourney where being hot can sometimes be better than being good.
Tonight, East Carolina closes out the regular season against a Tulane team that holds a 15-14 (3-12) record and is tied with SMU (12-18, 3-12) for last in the C-USA standings, one spot below the Pirates.
The Green Wave features four double-digit scores and is led by freshman guard Ricky Tarrant who leads his team in points per game (15.2), assists (95) and steals (52). Junior guard Kendall Timmons is second on the team in scoring with 13.6 points per game, while fellow junior guard Jordan Callahan is third with 11.9 points per night. Sophomore F/C Josh Davis leads the team in the paint as he is averaging 9.4 rebounds per game to go along with his 11 points a night.
The Pirates are guided by the dangerous duo of junior point guard Miguel Paul and senior C/F Darrius Morrow.
Morrow is coming off of his best game of the season as he poured in 27 points to lead ECU past Marshall in his Minges finale. On the year, Morrow is tallying 13.7 points and 6.1 boards a game.
Paul, a junior transfer from Missouri, is the conference’s fifth-leading scorer with 15.3 points per game while his 5.8 assists is tops in the league.
Hampering East Carolina will be the absence of starting shooting guard Shamarr Bowden (8.3 ppg), who will be out for tonight’s contest with what a school official cited as a “head injury” after getting caught by an inadvertent elbow on Wednesday during the team’s win over Marshall.
Freshman Paris Roberts-Campbell will likely take his place in the starting lineup. Campbell played 33 minutes against Marshall and made four of his five shot attempts for nine points.