Pirates Upend Charlotte To Earn Second C-USA Win

Pirates Upend Charlotte To Earn Second C-USA Win

01/29/2005

Final Box Score (ECU-CHA).pdf

Final Stats

Postgame Quotes

Postgame notes

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GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Mitchell Baldwin missed a potential tying 3-pointer as time expired as East Carolina held on to a 54-51 Conference USA upset over Charlotte on Saturday.

The Pirates (7-13, 2-6) held Charlotte scoreless over the final 6:41 to earn their second consecutive win. They beat St. Louis 60-53 on Wednesday.

East Carolina's Moussa Badiane scored 16 points and had nine rebounds and three blocks, which made him Conference USA's all-time leader in career blocks with 294.

He broke the record of 292 set by former Cincinnati All-American Kenyon Martin (1997-2000). As a junior last season, Badiane broke his own school record for blocks in a season with 90 - the fourth highest single-season total in league history. He has 55 this season.

Curtis Withers scored 23 points and had 13 rebounds - both game highs - to lead Charlotte (14-4, 5-2). E.J. Drayton was the only other 49ers player in double figures with 10 points.

Both teams struggled throughout the first half. Charlotte shot 26 percent from the floor, committed seven turnovers and made just six of 12 free throws.

East Carolina was little better, shooting 29 percent, committing 13 turnovers and making three of seven free throws.

East Carolina Head Coach Bill Herrion
On the win
"This win is a compliment to the kids you have to give them all the credit today, it was a great team win. It is really amazing what one win can do for you, we beat Saint Louis two days ago and our spirits have been up and we had two great practices before todays game."

"These kids keep playing hard and they keep coming back. This was just a great team win against a quality program."

"You really can't put a price tag on a win like this. We have tremendous respect for Bobby and his program they are going to be an NCAA tournament team no doubt about it. I think this win will give our kids major confidence that we can compete with the best teams in this league."

On Charlotte
"This is a team that has been playing very well almost as good as any team in the country. They have been a great road team they beat Indiana on the road and also at Marquette and UAB."

On Moussa's block shot record
"I am so proud of Moussa breaking the blocked shots record. It could not have happened to a better person.

On Tommy Hammonds
"Tommy made a huge pull-up jumper that put us up one as the shot clock was winding down. Tommy has great ability as an offensive player and we think that Tommy will be an outstanding player here at East Carolina and he is just a freshman."

Charlotte Head Coach Bobby Lutz
"I have to congratulate East Carolina. They hung around when we had the lead and just refused to go away. They out executed us down the stretch. The defensive change to the box-in-one was excellent. We normally don't have trouble with that but today we did and that was a great move by Bill to do that."

"You have to really congratulate East Carolina. I knew that they were going to beat somebody in here near the top, certainly didn't want it to be us but East Carolina is doing a great job. Their early season scheduled conference is very demanding. They won two in a row here now and I think they will win some more games and so will we."

"It was an incredibly well fought game by both teams. Wasn't the best executing, but in terms of effort I felt both teams played incredibly hard." "Obviously it is frustrating you know at 51-50, you don't want to stay at 51. Hammonds played terrific, he seemed to make every big shot for them and Cook made the foul shots when he needed to. Again my hats off to them for doing a good job."

Postgame Notes

Senior Moussa Badiane blocked three shots to set the Conference USA career record for blocked shots with 294.

Freshman Tom Hammonds scored a career-high 16 points and tied his career-highs for three-pointers made with four.