Pirates Suffer Another Heartbreaking Defeat
January 31, 2004 | Men's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) _ Drake Diener scored 21 points and Andre Brown had 19 points and eight rebounds to lead DePaul to a 70-65 victory over East Carolina on Saturday night.
Diener made 6 of 8 shots from the field, including 6 of 7 from 3-point range. Brown shot 7 of 10 from the field, helping DePaul (11-7, 4-3 Conference USA) shoot 49 percent.
Mike Cook had 17 points and six assists for the Pirates (8-9, 0-7), who led 36-32 at halftime. East Carolina shot 35 percent from the field in the second half and 39 percent for the game.
Erroyl Bing finished with 15 points and Moussa Badiane had nine rebounds and two blocks for the Pirates.
The Pirates have lost their last eight games while the Blue Demons have captured four of their last five. DePaul also has won all five meetings in the all-time series between the two schools.
East Carolina vs. DePaul
Jan. 31, 2004
Postgame Quotes
East Carolina Head Coach Bill Herrion
"The first five or six minutes of the second half I think was the key to the basketball game. I didn't think our defense was as aggressive and intense as it was in the first half. They started to get into a comfort zone early in the second half and they were scoring too easily against us."
"Diener can really shoot the basketball. He really hurt us in the first half when we tried to zone early."
"Our kids were resilient. They played hard and got back in the game. We needed somebody to make a play. I thought we had some pretty good open looks down the stretch but we just couldn't knock them down."
"We lose a couple of our frontcourt guys with injuries and on a night like tonight we needed more bodies up front. Erroyl Bing was flat exhausted. We are expecting him to make threes at the end and he didn't have any legs left."
"I think our kids played hard. I don't even think that is an issue. DePaul is a good team."
"There is such a fine line for us right now. The margin of error is absolutely microscopic for us. Derrick Wiley can't be 1-for-9 in order for us to win. We are playing hard but we have got to make some more shots."
DePaul Head Coach Dave Leitao
"In this or any other league to get a road win is extremely pleasing."
On ECU
"I was very impressed with how hard they play and how dedicated they are to playing well, especially on this court. They found they can go to a guy like Mike Cook who not only scored but controlled basically the whole tempo of the game."
"We got some contributions from Drake, especially in the first half, and Andre coming back and playing an amount of minutes was suprising and pleasing to me."
On first half
"I challenged them at halftime because I didn't think we were playing very well at all. Some of the things we have been doing over the past two or three weeks we didn't do in the first half. Offensively we weren't sharing the ball and defensively we were allowing penetration almost every time down the court."
On Mike Cook
"This team has been together for a while. They have some seniors who have contributed in a lot of games and to have a guy step into that role and play like he has been here for a long time. It speaks to his level of maturity and his talent."
East Carolina vs. DePaul
Jan. 31. 2004
Postgame Notes
