East Carolina University
6-2
Hawai'i
3-3
East Carolina Drops Close Game To Hawaii, 75-73
November 26, 2014 | Men's Basketball
ESTERO, Fla. - Garrett Nevels and Aaron Valdes combined to score 34 points and grab 18 rebounds to help Hawaii off East Carolina and win the fifth-place game at the Gulf Coast Showcase Wednesday, 75-73.
Freshman B.J. Tyson poured in a career-high 24 points to lead the Pirates with Caleb White scoring 18 points and grabbing a team-high eight rebounds and Terry Whisnant adding 13 points. The trio combined to make eight of East Carolina's season-high 10 3-pointers.
"Our guys battled hard," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "After being down at halftime, we showed some fire in the second half. We rebounded better; we defended better and finally got out in transition and got some baskets.
"We just beat ourselves with two lackadaisical turnovers that were home run turnovers. The kids feel bad about them, but you can't have those kinds of things and expect to win."
The Pirates knocked down 10 of 22 attempts behind the arc, but were out-rebounded 41-29. The Rainbow Warriors (6-2) scored 15 points off 16 offensive rebounds and used its inside presence for a 36-28 advantage scoring advantage in the paint.
Negus Webster-Chan added 11 points and Roderick Bobbitt 10 for the Rainbow Warriors (6-2).
Webster-Chan drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to give the `Bows a 14-11 advantage midway through the first half. Hawaii held the lead the remainder of the first half and built a nine-point halftime lead. It ended the half on an 8-0 run after Tyson had made a 3-pointer to trim the Pirates' deficit to one.
Hawaii built an 11-point lead in the early stages of the second half. Trailing by nine, 52-43, with 14:33 to play East Carolina went on a 13-2 run to take a 56-54 lead. The Pirates scored 10 unanswered points with Tyson and White accounting for each point. ECU took its final lead of the game on a dunk from Tyson.
The Rainbow Warriors countered with a 14-3 run with six points from Nevels for a 68-59 lead with four minutes to play.
ECU then scored five straight points pull within four with 2:26 remaining. The score remained unchanged for the next minute until Mike Thomas made a free throw.
Tyson made a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to pull ECU within three, but Bobbitt sealed the win for Hawaii by making the second of two free throw attempts with six seconds left.
