Pirates Head To The Sunshine State To Battle UCF
February 17, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2012
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| East Carolina vs. UCF Feb. 18, 2012 | 7 p.m. EST Orlando, Fla.. TV: Bright House Sports Network/CSS |
 Watch |  Live Stats |  Game Notes |  Tickets |  Gameday Central |
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THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAME
• The Pirates are going after their third consecutive win over the Knights at the UCF Arena. ECU won last year's game in Orlando, 74-62 and the 2010 clash, 68-66.
•ECU is 2-6 on the road this season, while UCF is 13-1 at home.
•East Carolina is one of six teams shooting over 70-percent from the foul line in Conference USA play. However, it has shot over its average at the charity stripe just once in the last four games (12-15, .800 at Marshall), going a combined 41-of-62 (.661).
•Over the last four games, ECU has an overall rebounding margin of +22. Despite being depleted in the front court, the Pirates were only out-rebounded by one by the league's top rebounding team, Marshall. UCF ranks second in C-USA with 37.6 rebounds per game and fourth with a rebounding margin of +4.2.
•Senior Darrius Morrow and junior Corvonn Gaines are on the verge of becoming the eighth and ninth players in school history to amass 100 steals in a career. Morrow needs a pair of steals to reach the century mark, while Gaines is three shy.
•Should be Pirates tally six steals in the game, it would mark the eighth time in school history that they've recorded 200 steals in a season. ECU leads Conference USA with an average of 8.1 steals per game.
•ECU is coming off its fifth 50-percent shooting performance on Saturday, but suffered its second loss in those games. The Pirates made over half their field goal attempts on the road against Southern Miss and Marshall, but didn't claim the victory.
•The Pirates have made 10 3-point field goals in three of the last five games. During those five games, ECU has made 43-of-98 (.439). Against Marshall on Saturday, ECU connected on 10-of-19 3-point attempts.
PIRATES TO WATCH
• Senior Darrius Morrow has scored double figures in 15 of the last 17 games, shooting 56.0 percent from the floor (93-of-166). Morrow is averaging 14.4 ppg in conference play.
•Junior Miguel Paul leads Conference USA in assists per game (5.8) and total assists (140). Paul ranks second in the league assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4). He needs six assists to move into fifth-place on the school's single-season chart.
•Sophomore Robert Sampson is coming off his second double-double of the season, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds at Marshall. He made 7-of-8 field goals, including 3-of-4 behind the arc.
•Junior Shamarr Bowden netted double figures for just the second time in league play with 10 points against Memphis. He ranks among the top five in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage and 3-point field goals made per game.
•Junior Corvonn Gaines has averaged twice as many points per game over the last three games, 7.0, compared to 3.5 points per game this season.
SERIES HISTORY
• UCF leads the all-time series, 12-5 The Knights won the first nine meetings in the series, but the Pirates have won five of the last eight.
LAST TIME WE MET
• Isaiah Sykes scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead UCF over East Carolina, 81-63, ending the Pirates' four-game winning streak against the Knights.The Knights shot over 50 percent from the floor in both halves and finished the game at 52.2 percent (35-67) compared to just 36.7 percent shooting (22-60) for the Pirates, who were out-rebounded by 17 (46-29). UCF junior Keith Clanton and senior A.J. Rompza each added 16, while Marcus Jordan scored 12. Miguel Paul led ECU with 21 points with Maurice Kemp scoring 14 and Darrius Morrow netting 11. UCF jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but the Pirates used an 8-2 spurt to pull within one at the first media timeout. The Knights responded by scoring eight unanswered as part of a 14-1 run to take a 14-point lead, as Rompza scored nine points during the run. The Pirates trimmed their deficit seven at intermission, 38-31, as Paul sank his second 3-pointer of the half with 28 seconds before Morrow rejected Jordan's 3-point attempts at the halftime buzzer. ECU shot 36.7 percent (11-30) in the opening stanza, while UCF converted on 50 percent (16-32) of its field goal attempts. The Knights limited the Pirates to just four offensive rebounds and out-rebounded them overall 23-14, grabbing more defensive boards (15) than yielding total. The second half was a repeat performance of the first with the Pirates posing duplicate shooting total (11-30, .367) and the Knights connecting on over 50 percent (.543) from the field. The Knights opened the second half on a 19-4 run taking a 22-point lead, 57-35, in just under eight minutes. Clanton scored five straight points to spark a 10-0 run and give UCF its largest lead of the game. Three times ECU pulled within 11 points, but never cut its deficit under double figures.
LAST YEAR IN ORLANDO
• - Jontae Sherrod scored 21 points and had nine rebounds as East Carolina beat the Knights 74-62. It was the Pirates' second straight victory over the Knights, both on the road. UCF scored the game's first basket on the game's opening possession, it was the only time the Pirates trailed the entire evening. Erin Straughn answered with his first of four 3-pointers and gave the Pirates the lead, which they never relinquished. The Pirates made their first six 3-point attempts and led by 11, 25-14, midway through the opening half. Straughn made the first three 3-pointers, followed by one from Corvonn Gaines and two from Brock Young. The final 10 minutes of the first half was a game of runs. First, the Knights outscored the Pirates 11-4 to pulling with four at 29-25. ECU followed that with 12-1 spurt to take a 15-point lead as Pirates turned their attack inside and built the lead to 41-26 on Darrius Morrow's lay-up with 2:17 left in the half. UCF scored the final 10 points of the half, including a 3-pointer by A.J. Rompza at the buzzer that cut the ECU lead to five, 41-36. The second half began with the two teams trading 3-point baskets and UCF getting to within three, 44-41, 1:04 into the second session. That was as close as it got the rest of the game. Sherrod's steal and pass ahead to Gaines for a lay-up started a 16-4 run that gave East Carolina a 62-45 lead with 10:47 capped by Straughn's fourth3-pointer of the night as the shot clock expired. The Pirates scored only one point over the next 7:30 of the game. UCF outscored East Carolina 10-1, cutting the deficit to 63-55 on Taylor Young's 3-pointer with 3:46 to play. Morrow, who finished with 14 points, stopped the drought with a lay-up at the 3:17 mark and East Carolina converted 8-of-12 free throws the rest of the way to hold on for the win. Straughn scored all 12 of his points from behind the three-point line, making 4-of-5 attempts. Isaac Sosa led the Knights with 16 points; Keith Clanton contributed 12 and Marcus Jordan 11.
UP NEXT
• The Pirates will conclude their three-game road swing Wednesday night at Memphis. The game will be televised on the CBS Sports Network beginning at 7 p.m.
