Men's basketball Travels To UTEP Saturday
January 13, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2006
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Matchup: East Carolina vs. UTEP
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2006
Time: 9 p.m. EST/ 7 p.m. MST
Site: Don Haskins Arena (El Paso, Texas)
Records: ECU 6-8 overall, 0-1 Conference USA; UTEP 8-5 overall, 1-0 Conference USA
Rankings: None
TV: None
Radio: Pirate Sports Radio Network. Jeff Charles (play-by-play) and Si Seymour (analyst) provide the call.
Pirates Head To UTEP For First C-USA Road Game Of The Year
East Carolina makes its first Conference USA road trip of the season this weekend as it travels to El Paso, Texas for a first-ever meeting with league newcomer UTEP. The game is scheduled for 9 p.m. EST (7 p.m. MST) tip-off at the Don Haskins Center. The game can be heard throughout eastern North Carolina on the 18-station Pirate Sports Radio Network and over the internet at www.ecupirates.com. Jeff Charles (play-by-play) and Si Seymour (analyst) will have the call.
The Pirates are coming off a hard fought loss at home to No. 5 Memphis Wednesday night, 77-67, while UTEP earned its first Conference USA victory by defeating SMU in Dallas, 80-67.
The game will feature the top two rebounders in the league, ECU senior Corey Rouse and UTEP senior John Tofi. Rouse is averaging a league best 10.7 rebounds per game, while Tofi ranks second with 9.7 boards per contest. Both players rank among the top five in scoring.
This weekend trip will be East Carolina's first of two trips to the "Lone Star State." The Pirates will also visit Houston, Texas on February 15 to battle another Conference USA newcomer, Rice.
Saturday's game will be the first-ever meeting between the Pirates and Miners, whose campuses are over 1,900 miles and two time zones apart.
Pirate Road Woes
The road has been a tough place to play for the Pirates this season. East Carolina is just 1-4 away from the friendly surroundings of Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
However, the Pirates have played well on the road its last two games, nearly upsetting 22nd-ranked Wake Forest in Winston-Salem and pushing Mid-American Conference favorite Toledo to the wire three days before Christmas.
Earlier this season, ECU earned its first true non-conference road win in three seasons by defeating Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C.
ECU has remaining road dates at Tulane, UCF, Marshall, Southern Miss, Rice and UAB.
Road Less Traveled
The last time East Carolina traveled over 1,900 miles to play a basketball game was during the 1994-95 season when it took part in the Aloha Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Saturday's game will be the fourth time that East Carolina has traveled to Texas to play a conference game since joining Conference USA in 2001-02.
The Pirates visited former C-USA member TCU in 2002 and 2005 and current member Houston in 2004. ECU is 0-3 in its last three visits to the state.
Ingram Adds Spark
Since joining the East Carolina lineup, sophomore Jeremy Ingram has been a spark plug for the Pirates. Ingram is the team's second leading scorer with 12.1 points per game and is its top three-point field goal shooter at 38.6 percent. Ingram transferred to ECU from Wake Forest at the beginning of the 2005 spring semester and played in his first game as Pirate against Winthrop on December 18.
More on Ingram:
