Gameday Central: East Carolina at Marshall
March 01, 2014 | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2014
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SETTING THE SCENE
? East Carolina goes after its fourth consecutive win Sunday afternoon as it travels to Huntington, W.Va. to face Marshall for the final time as a Conference USA member. The Pirates are 5-11 against the Herd as conference rivals.
?A win would secure the Pirates' second consecutive winning season. ECU hasn't posted back-to-back winning seasons since having four straight from 1993-97.
?ECU (74.6) and Marshall (73.4) rank second and fourth in the league in scoring overall. However in conference play, the Herd (64.3) ranks just 12th and the Pirates (64.0) only 13th.
?The two teams have split the six games they have played between under coaches Jeff Lebo and Tom Herrion. Each team has won at home twice and on the road once.
?In conference play, the Pirates have the league's No. 2 3-point field goal defense holding their opponents to 29.0 percent (81-279) shooting outside the arc, while Marshall is last in 3-point percentage connecting on just 27.9 percent of its 3-point tries (27.9).
?East Carolina leads the conference in free throw shooting at 71.7 percent (503-702) and Marshall ranks 15th at 62.5 percent (467-747).
?The ECU backcourt combo of Akeem Richmond (133) and Paris Roberts-Campbell (50) have combined to make 183 3-pointers this season, six more than Marshall (177) as a team.
?During its current three-game winning streak, ECU is shooting 41.7 (28-67) percent behind the arc and 71.2 percent (57-80) at the foul line.
The QUEST FOR 400
? Akeem Richmond is six 3-pointers shy of becoming just the 13th player in NCAA Division history to make 400 career 3s. He currently ranks 14th on the all-time list with 394.
LAST TIME OUT
? Senior Akeem Richmond made eight 3-pointers and scored 27 points in his final home game to lead the Pirates to 75-68 win over Charlotte Thursday night. Antonio Robinson added 15 points off the bench and Caleb White had 14.
?The Pirates built a 21-2 lead in the first 9:39 before Charlotte ended the half on a 22-11 run to pull within eight at the break. The 49ers tied the game at 50, but ECU never surrendered the lead and outscored them 21-14 in the last seven minutes, making 7-of-10 free throws in the final three minutes.
SERIES HISTORY
? Marshall leads the all-time series 13-7, including an 11-5 advantage in Conference USA games. The Pirates posted their only win in Huntington three years ago, 82-81, rallying from 10 down in the final 5:30 minutes.
LOOKING AHEAD
? East Carolina will play its regular season finale Thursday night at Old Dominion before heading to the C-USA Championship tournament in El Paso.
