By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — After losing a well played game against Southern Miss East Carolina will look to rebound tonight when it hosts Conference USA foe Houston at 6 p.m.
On Wednesday, the Pirates (11-9, 3-3) hit 51 percent of their shots from the floor, made nearly 80 percent of their free throws, committed only 10 turnovers and swiped seven steals, but still fell 84-77 to the Golden Eagles and their fist-pumping coach Larry Eustachy.
Leading up to today’s game, East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo stressed the importance of not letting a disappointing loss beat them twice.
“You’re going to lose games … But is it going to take your will to work?,” Lebo said. “When you win you’re always bouncy and jumpy, you got to keep that. You have to keep the games in perspective. We were heartbroken. They beat us. But you can’t come out and feel sorry for ourselves because we have to keep working or the basketball gods will keep giving you Ls.”
The Pirates held a 53-50 lead after a pair of Darrius Morrow free throws at the 10:26 mark in the second half, but quickly lost that advantage after back-to-back three-pointers by Angelo Johnson.
Though East Carolina would cut the deficit to one point several times, it could not get over the hump and reclaim the lead as the offense hit dry spells down the stretch.
A big part of that was the fact that the Eagles clamped down on Morrow in the paint. The ECU junior power forward scored a game-high 18 points, but was held to only one basket the final 10 minutes of the game.
Lebo said his team must do a better job finding ways to get Morrow the ball when he is being fronted or have other players rise to the occasion and make defenses pay for focusing on him too much.
“Darrius is not an above the rim type of player, he’s got to really work to keep guys on his back. Smaller guys get in front of him and that bothers him,” Lebo said. “We have to find different ways to get him the basketball and other guys have to step up and make plays.
“The way (Southern Miss) played (Wednesday) they really pressured and it forced us to put the ball down on the floor and that’s what you have to do against pressure, you got to beat them off the bounce. So at times the offense wasn’t as fluid because they were out in the passing lanes and we had to put the ball on the ground.”
With a 3-3 Conference USA record, the Pirates will attempt to get above .500 tonight against a Houston (11-8, 3-3) that is also coming off of a heartbreaking loss as it fell in overtime to in-state rival Rice.
The Cougars enter tonight’s matchup with the Conference USA’s 10th ranked offense (70 ppg) and 10th ranked defense (67.6) and are second in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage as they make 40 percent of their attempts.
Houston is led by 6-9 senior Adam Brown who is posting a team-high 14 points per game, while fellow 6-9 senior Maurice McNeill is having a solid season as he is tallying 12.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. Senior point guard Zamal Nixon is fourth in the conference in assists with 4.9 per contest, while he is second in steals with 1.9 a night.
“They have terrific scorer in Brown and they’ve got seniors in the backcourt like most teams in our league,” Lebo said. “They have a good senior point guard, a perimeter guy in Brown and a good inside guy in McNeill. They present a lot of different problems for us and they are a tough hard-nosed defense.”
The Pirates are led in scoring by shooting guard Jontae Sherrod and his 14.9 points per game. Morrow is right behind him with 12.3 points per game, while Jamar Abrams is ECU’s third-leading scorer with 10 points a night.
Lebo said in order for his team to be successful tonight against Houston it must eliminate mistakes.
“We have to get good shots and get them within the flow of the offense. We have to make good decisions,” Lebo said. “In our last game we had some breakdowns defensively, not gigantic ones but little ones, and (Southern Miss) found those breakdowns and punished us each time. We have to be more disciplined to not have those breakdowns … We can’t have those plays and expect to win.”