ECU Hosts Houston In Home Finale Saturday Night

ECU Hosts Houston In Home Finale Saturday Night

02/25/2005

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Greenville, N.C. --- Emotions are sure to be running high Saturday night when East Carolina hosts Houston in its home finale inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum at 7 o'clock. It'll be the final home game for senior Moussa Badiane and head coach Bill Herrion, who will be relinquished of his coaching duties at the end of the season.

The game will be televised throughout Eastern North Carolina on WITN-TV 7 with Jeff Charles and Billy Weaver calling the game. The game can also be heard via the internet at ecupirates.com or over the 19-station Pirate Sports Radio Network with Reese Edwards and Si Seymour providing play-by-play and color analysis.

While a victory doesn't automatically secure a bid to the Conference USA Tournament in Memphis, March 9-12, it will go along way toward improving those chances. Following its win over Southern Miss Wednesday night, ECU became one of three teams with four league wins and moved into a tie with USF for 11th place. Since the league expanded to 14 teams in 2001-02, every team that has won at least five league contests has reached the conference tournament.

ECU received a stellar performance from its upper classmen Wednesday night as Badiane as junior Corey Rouse each recorded a double-double. Rouse netted a career-best 21 points for the third time this season and recorded his fourth consecutive double-double, pulling down 13 rebounds in addition. Badiane also scored a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Mike Cook added 19 points in the victory, while freshman Tom Hammonds poured in 15 points.

Houston enters the game riding a three-game winning streak, but are just 2-4 on the road this season against Conference USA competition.

The game will be just the fourth meeting between the two schools. Each team has won the previous meeting on its home floor, but UH's 2002 C-USA Tournament First Round win over ECU in Cincinnati gives the Cougars a 2-1 series advantage.

Quick Hits

Junior Corey Rouse has recorded four consecutive double-doubles entering Saturday night's game against Houston. Rouse is averaging 15.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game over the last four contests.

Sophomore Japhet McNeil became just the 10th player in school history to dish out 200 career assists on Wednesday night against Southern Miss. McNeil has tallied 205 career helpers, ranking ninth on the school's all-time list.

Sophomore Mike Cook has scored double figures in 24 of 26 games played this season. Cook was inured during the early stages of the second half against UAB and taken to hospital, ending his night with just seven points against the Blazers in 19 minutes.

Freshman Tom Hammonds ranks as the fourth leading freshman scorer in Conference USA this season with 7.7 points per game. Hammonds is East Carolina's top three-point shooter at 34.9 percent.

Senior Moussa Badiane has blocked at least one shot in every game this season and multiple shots in nine straight games. He has swatted a minimum of three shots in six of the past nine games.

Badiane needs to average 5.5 rebounds per game over the final two games to reach 600 career boards.

After going 16-for-30 as team at the foul line against Marquette, East Carolina is shooting 68.9 percent from the charity stripe over the past two games (51-of-74).

Three of the Pirates past four victories have occurred when trailing at halftime, while the fourth game was tied at intermission.

East Carolina has won three of its past four home games by an average margin of 4.5 points per game.

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