GREENVILLE — The East Carolina men’s basketball team hit its low point of an already disappointing season in a 69-52 loss to bottom-feeding South Florida in an American Athletic Conference showdown.

The Bulls (6-21, 3-11 AAC) moved ahead of the Pirates (10-16, 2-11 AAC) in the conference rankings to bump ECU down to last place.

ECU had cut into a nine-point USF lead halfway through the second half but the Bulls pulled away with a 16-4 run to end the game. The Pirates shot 29 percent (8-of-27) from the field in the second half and 34 percent (18-of-53) for the game. Even from the charity stripe, ECU struggled and converted just nine of 19 chances.

“We couldn’t make a shot. We couldn’t even make a shot when they weren’t trying to guard us in the last two minutes of the game,” ECU head coach Jeff Lebo said bluntly after the loss. “It’s just a frustrating night for us, but give USF a lot of credit, they had a lot to do with that.”

USF’s zone swarmed ECU as it came up with six steals and six blocks. The Pirates were overwhelmed in the paint by Jaleel Cousins (6-foot-11) and Ruben Guerrero (6-foot-11). The duo combined for 16 points and 17 boards.

Cousins logged a double-double. He had seven rebounds in the first eight minutes of play. Michael Zangari was largely tasked with covering the paint, but to no avail. Offensively, Michel Nzege, Kanu Aja, Clarence Williams and Zangari were a combined 0-for-6 from the field.

“I wasn’t sure that we would be able to beat them inside, but I knew we had a size advantage,” Bulls head coach Orlando Antigua said after his team’s third conference road victory. “At the same time, when you have that kind of size we have and (ECU) has the athletes they have, you’ve got to worry about how you’ll defend them in transition.”

Antigua’s team did will to cut off ECU in transition and allowed just seven fastbreak points and a dozen points off turnovers.

The Bulls were led offensively by their guard play. Nehemias Morillo hit four 3-pointers, most as time expired on the shot clock, and finished with 18 points. Jahmal McMurray was 7-of-14 from the field and visited the free throw line often (5-of-6) to finish with a game-high 21 points. USF’s inside-out play gave forward Bo Zeigler a game-high six assists.

The Pirates zone looked slow and USF’s passing exploited open opportunities.

“Our guys moved the ball and were looking for the openings in the zone and they saw when things were available,” Antigua said. “That was a big step for us in the right way and we executed really well when we had to.”

Junior forward Caleb White had an encouraging first half and finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. But he struggled in the second half, along with the rest of the team, and finished 5-of-13 from the field. B.J. Tyson and Prince Williams were held to nine points each. White led the team with 13 points while Barkley followed with 10 points and seven rebounds.

“We have to remember it’s just one game. We’ve really been playing a lot better,” Lebo said. “It just didn’t happen tonight. We couldn’t get kind of flow, we couldn’t string things together, we couldn’t hit a shot, we couldn’t get a stop. They’d make a key jump shot, they got to the foul line. We shot it poorly from the foul line, again. It’s hard to explain this game.”

The Pirates take to the road Sunday and head to Dallas to take on No. 21 Southern Methodist to kick off a short two-game road swing.