East Carolina University
Houston
Pirates Hold On Late to Defeat Houston, 66-61
January 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Box Score 
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Game Highlights
From wire and staff reports
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- B.J. Tyson scored 16 points and Caleb White added 14 as East Carolina secured its first American Athletic Conference victory, 66-61, Wednesday night over Houston to end a three-game losing streak.
As the teams scrapped down to the wire, the Pirates (8-9, 1-3) made 5 of their last 7 shots from the field starting with Marshall Guilmette's first-ever 3-pointer to put East Carolina up 52-48. Terry Whisnant followed with a trey to make it 52-51, answering a long-range dagger from Houston's Cavon Baker.
White added a layup and a jumper and Tyson dunked after a Whisnant steal, putting the Pirates up 61-56 with 96 seconds left to play.
Baker added another trey for Houston (7-9, 0-5) to make it a two-point game. Tyson made 1 of 2 free throws with 16 seconds left to push ECU out to a three-point advantage. Danrad Knowles went for the tie, but his shot was off the mark and fell into the hands of White, who sealed the win by calming swishing a pair of free throws.
"The last five minutes of the game, it was going to be like, who was going to be able to make the plays?" ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "Who had the confidence to make the winning plays to try to win the game and luckily, we came out on top." Knowles led the Cougars with 16 points, while L.J. Rose had 15 and Baker 11.
The Pirates' defense held the conference's leading scorer Jherrod Stiggers, who was averaging 16.8 points per game, to five points on 2 of 15 shooting, including 0 of 5 from outside the arc. Stiggers was also the league's leading 3-point shooter with 3.9 makes per game.
Whisnant, who finished the night with 13 points, spent the majority of his time guarding the 6-foot-4 shooter.
"I took it personal," he said. "Coach challenged me early in the week about him and what he likes to do. ... I took it as a challenge and studied the game plan, studied what he did and I was just ready to lock up tonight. I really didn't care about scoring."
The Pirates led by 13 with 13 minutes to play, but Houston used a 19-9 run to pull within one, 49-48, with 6:55 to play.
ECU finished the game shooting 24 of 54 from the floor, despite not taking a shot in the first four minutes.
Neither team got on the board until Whisnant picked off a pass and went coast-to-coast for a dunk 4:23 into the contest. The Cougars didn't make their first field goal until nearly six minutes had elapsed off the clock.
The Pirates held Houston to just 28.6 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes and led 30-21 at halftime, scoring 10 points off 10 turnovers before intermission.
ECU also enjoyed a 29-11 edge off the bench with Lance Tejada and Guilmette combining for 13 points to go along with Tyson's 16.
