Pirates Look To Find Winning Ways Against DePaul Saturday
January 21, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Chicago, Ill. --- East Carolina will try to snap a seven-game slide in Conference USA Saturday afternoon as it takes on DePaul at the Allstate Arena in Chicago at 1:30 p.m. EST (12:30 p.m. CST). The game was orginally scheduled for a 2 p.m. EST time start, but was move up one-half hour to accomodate television. The game will be televised throughout the Midwest on Comcast Sports Chicago with David Kaplan and Eric Collins scheduled to call the action. It'll be the final conference game between the two schools as the Blue Demons will be departing for the Big East Conference at season's end. ECU has never posted a victory over DePaul in five previous attempts.
The Pirates will quickly attempt to put behind them a 51-point loss at 14th-ranked Louisville this past Wednesday. Senior Moussa Badiane was the only Pirate to reach double figures, scoring 16 points and grabbing 16 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.
DePaul is coming off a 13-point victory over 25th-ranked Marquette at home Thursday night. The Blue Demons put five players in double figures led by Sammy Mejia, who poured in a career-high 26 points. Lorenzo Thompson came off the bench to net 17 points, while leading scorer Quemont Greer added 15, Drake Diener netted 12 and Marlon Brumfield chipped in 10.
The Blue Demons have reeled off three straight victories since losing to Cincinnati and are tied atop the league standings with just one loss. DePaul is 9-1 at home this season with wins over Dayton, Rhode Island and Old Dominion.
East Carolina will be making its third visit to Allstate Arena on Saturday, where its previous two games were decided by margins of 11 and 13 points. A year ago in Greenville, the Pirates nearly registered their first win over DePaul, but fell five points short of knocking off the eventual conference champion.
While the history between the two schools is a short one, the two head coaches squared off numerous times in the America East Conference. Herrion's Drexel squad defeated Leitao's Northeastern team in four of five meetings, but it has been Leitao who has had the upper hand in C-USA, posting a 3-0 mark against ECU.
