Gameday Central: East Carolina vs. UTSA
March 10, 2014 | Men's Basketball
March 10, 2014
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SETTING THE SCENE
? East Carolina enters the 2014 Conference USA Championship as the No. 12 seed and will face 13th-seeded UTSA in the First Round Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. MDT at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
? The winner advances to take on No. 5 seed and tournament host UTEP on Wednesday at 6 p.m. MDT.
? The Pirates defeated UTSA 81-71 earlier this season in Greenville, N.C. ECU senior Akeem Richmond paced the Pirates with 31 points. Caleb White had 18, Michael Zangari 11 and Prince Williams 10.
FINAL C-USA TOURNAMENT
? East Carolina is competing in its final Conference USA Championship. The Pirates are 3-10 all-time in the tournament. All three of those wins have come in the last three years under coach Jeff Lebo.
? ECU's best tournament run came three years ago at the Don Haskins Arena in El Paso. As the No. 8 seed, ECU defeated ninth-seeded UCF in the first round and followed that by knocking out top-seeded UAB in the quarterfinals. The run ended the next night against Memphis in the semifinals
TALE OF THE TAPE
? Scoring: While the Pirates have a better overall scoring average, UTSA (67.9) averaged 4.4 more points per C-USA game than ECU (62.8). However, the Roadrunners are surrendered a league-high 75.2 ppg during conference play, while ECU held its opponents to 67.4 ppg.
? Field Goal Percentage: Both teams are shooting approximately 40 percent from the field and allowing their opponents to shoot 45 percent. ECU (.444) and UTSA (.469) ranked 15th and 16th in field goal percent defense in C-USA play.
? 3-Point Shooting: The Pirates have the top 3-point shooting team in the league at 36.5 percent, while the Roadrunners rank 16th in 3-point field goal percent defense at 36.6 percent. ECU averages 8.4 3s per game compared to 5.8 by UTSA.
? Free Throws: East Carolina and UTSA are among the top free throw shooting teams in C-USA. The Pirates lead the league at 71.4 percent with UTSA shooting 69.2 percent, third-best in the league.
A WIN WOULD...
? Assure the Pirates of their second consecutive non-losing season and give ECU its 13th 17-win season in school history. The Pirates haven't had consecutive non-losing seasons since having four straight winning seasons from 1994-97.
?Make Jeff Lebo just the second ECU coach to win four Division I conference tournament games. Tom Quinn won six Southern Conference Tournament games from 1969-73.
?Be the Pirates' fourth of the season on a neutral court. East Carolina is 3-0 in neutral site games this season.
OTHER THINGS TO WATCH FOR
? Senior Akeem Richmond is six 3-pointers shy of the Conference USA single-season record. Richmond has made 139 3s this season. The record of 145 was set by former Houston Cougar Robert McKiver in 2007-08.
?Caleb White is four points shy of becoming the third freshman in school history to score 400 points and first since Gabriel Mikulas in 2000-01.
?Paris Roberts-Campbell is six assists away from joining Prince Williams as the only pair of players to distribute 100 assists in the same season. Williams leads the team with 112 this year.
?East Carolina is two steals short of recording its fourth-straight 200 steal season.
