Pirates Lead Horned Frogs From Start to Finish
February 21, 2004 | Men's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Derrick Wiley scored 23 points, and Erroyl Bing had 18 points and 15 rebounds in East Carolina's 75-70 win over TCU on Saturday.
Belton Rivers scored 16 points for the Pirates (11-12, 3-10 Conference USA), who never trailed in the game.
Corey Santee led the Horned Frogs (10-13, 6-6) with 18 points. Marcus Shropshire added 16 points, Nucleus Smith had 13 and Chudi Chinweze added 12.
East Carolina led by as much as 15 points in the first half when Bing's 3-pointer made it 46-31 with a minute before the break. Shropshire scored on a 3-pointer of his own to narrow the score to 46-34 at halftime.
The Pirates kept the lead in double digits for much of the second half. But Santee hit one shot from the line at 7:48, then scored on a layup about a minute later to make the score 67-56, starting a 16-8 run that cut East Carolina's lead to 5 at the final buzzer.
East Carolina vs. TCU
2/21/04
Postgame Quotes
East Carolina Head Coach Bill Herrion
"I am just really proud of the kids. A great win for our team and a great win for our program. Three or four days ago before we played Tulane our backs were really, really to the wall and we needed wins here down the stretch to try and get in the Conference USA tournament."
On C-USA Tournament
"We really want to earn our way in by winning games and playing well, which we are. I really don't want back door into this thing."
"Great effort, great team win against a quality basketball team. TCU is very talented."
"I can't be more proud of what these kids are giving me, my staff, the fans and the university. They are just playing their hearts out right now. I think people should be proud of these kids."
"This is the best that our basketball team has played in the five years that I have been here."
"You hope that your seniors are finally realizing that their careers are winding down quicky. What good seniors typically do in good programs in they really step up late in the year and they play with a lot of urgency."
"Erroyl Bing was phenomenal in the first half tonight, he was great. That was his best 20 minute stretch I have seen him play in four years here at East Carolina."
"We got great minutes out of Rouse. We were in major foul trouble with Moussa and Erroyl and Cory Rouse gave us a great lift in the first half."
"Mike Cook just continues to get better and better and better."
"This was just a tremendous team win for us against a very good team."
"This is the second consecutive game that we have basically lead wire to wire. To me that is progress, it really is. We have never really been in the position of playing with a lot of leads in this league."
"For one stretch in the first half we had three freshman on the floor. They all played well, they all gave us good minutes."
East Carolina vs. TCU
February 21, 2004
Postgame Notes
