Gameday Central: East Carolina at Tulsa
February 12, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2014
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SETTING THE SCENE
?East Carolina begins its two-game road swing across the Mississippi River Thursday night at Tulsa. It'll be the Pirates' third consecutive trip to the Oklahoma city, where they spilt a pair of games last season.
?The Pirates are 0-2 on Thursday night in Conference USA road play this season, losing at Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee.
?The Golden Hurricane has compiled an 8-3 record at home this season, while ECU has recorded a 3-5 road ledger.
?Since the onset of conference play, Tulsa has the second-highest scoring offense (74.3 ppg) in the league behind Louisiana Tech (81.3 ppg). ECU is averaging 63.3 ppg in conference play.
?ECU is shooting 40.0 percent (189-473) in Conference USA games, while Tulsa has limited its conference foes to 40.2 percent shooting.
LAST TIME OUT
?The Pirates broke their five-game home losing streak with an 81-71 win over UTSA Saturday night. Akeem Richmond led the Pirates with 31 points, making 15-of-15 free throws and four 3-pointers.
?ECU built a 20-point lead, 58-38, with 10:35 to play but had its lead cut to five, 67-62, with 2:41 remaining. The Pirates then made 14-of-14 free throws in the final 2:21 to hold off the Roadrunners.
?Freshman Caleb White scored 18 points and Michael Zangari had 11, while Prince Williams came off the bench to add 10. ECU finished the game shooting 50 percent (23-46) after connecting on 61.1 percent (11-18) second half field goal attempts.
PIRATE TALES
? After starting league play 0-6, East Carolina has won two of its last three C-USA games. The Pirates averaged 77 points in those two wins and held UAB and UTSA to a combined average of 69.0 points per game.
?Akeem Richmond leads all NCAA Division I players with an average 4.63 3-pointers per game. He's made two or more 3s in 25 of the last 26 games.
?East Carolina leads Conference USA in free throw percentage (.719) and 3-point field goals per game (8.4), while ranking second in 3-point percentage (.364).
?Freshman Caleb White has scored 17 or more points in three of the last four games, including 18 against UTSA and Middle Tennessee.
SERIES HISTORY
? Thursday's game will mark the 13th all-time meeting between ECU and TU. Tulsa won the initial meeting on Dec. 28, 1984, 86-63, in Tulsa.
?ECU won the first C-USA meeting between the two, 54-45, on Jan. 28, 2006. Its only other win on the series came last year at the Reynolds Center, 72-63.
LOOKING AHEAD
?The Pirates will make their first visit to Denton, Texas on Saturday facing Conference USA newcomer North Texas at 7 p.m. CST. The all-time series stands at 1-1.
