Men's Basketball Concludes Pre-Christmas Slate At Toledo Tonight
December 21, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2005
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East Carolina will play its final game prior to Christmas on Wednesday night at Toledo. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. EST tip-off; a change from the original scheduled start time of 7 p.m.
The two teams enter the game going in opposite directions. East Carolina has lost four in-a-row, while Toledo has won five of its last six games, including each of the last two. The game will be Toledo's fifth straight home game, where it has an overall record of 4-1 this season. Conversely, East Carolina is 1-2 on the road in 2005-05.
ECU is coming off a 22-point loss at Winthrop on Sunday. Senior Corey Rouse recorded his sixth double-double of the season, finishing with a team-high 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Sophomore Jeremy Ingram made his ECU debut and netted nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from behind the arc.
Toledo posted a 15-point victory over St. Bonaventure on Saturday, 83-68. Five players scored double figures for the Rockets led by Allen Vinson's perfect shooting night. Vinson tallied 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field, including a pair of 3s. Florentino Valencia and Keonta Howell added 14 points each. The Rockets' leading scorer, Justin Ingram (14.7 ppg) added 10 points in the victory.
Wednesday's game will be the fourth meeting between East Carolina and Toledo. The Pirates took a 2-1 series lead with a 73-71 victory at home last season. Rouse poured in 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Pirates withstood a furious second half rally by the Rockets, after leading by 13 at halftime.
Following its game against Toledo, members of the ECU basketball team will scatter across the country to be with their families before returning to campus for its next game against Limestone on December 28 inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
Rouse Looking To Join 500 Club
East Carolina senior Corey Rouse should join the 500 rebound club on Wednesday night against Toledo. He needs just two more rebounds to become the 19th player in school history to record 500 career boards.
As a junior he tallied 285 rebounds, sixth highest single season total in school history, and led Conference USA with 10.2 rebounds per game.
Thus far in 2005-06, Rouse has gathered 85 rebounds and again leads Conference USA in rebounding with 10.9 boards per game.
The Book On Toledo
The Series History
ECU-UT Connections
Last Time We Met...
Corey Rouse poured in a game-high and 21 points, shooting 9-of-11 from the field, and grabbing nine rebounds to lead ECU to a 73-71 victory over Toledo.
East Carolina led for the first 38:28 before the Rockets fought back and seized their first lead with 1:32 to play on a reverse lay-up by Florentino Valencia, 69-68. The final 1:30 then turned into a seesaw battle.
Moussa Badiane then made a pair of free throws with 1:02 remaining. Valencia responded with another lay-up the next trip down the court with 0:37.4 seconds left.
Following an East Carolina time out, Rouse put the Pirates ahead for good with a baseline dunk with 0:25. 3 seconds to play, giving the Pirates a 72-71 lead. Rouse then rebounded a missed three by Allen Pinson and made the front-end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity with 0:1.6 seconds. The Rockets' rebounded Rouse's second free throw attempt, but their final desperation shot fell short.
The Pirates blistered the nets early and often in the first half, jumping out to a 21-6 lead less than eight minutes into the half and led by as many as 17 during the period.
Keonta Howell scored 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting to lead the Rockets, while Pinson netted 10.
