East Carolina University
11-14, 4-8
Temple
19-7, 10-3
East Carolina Falls at Temple, 66-53
February 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball
From wire and staff reports
PHILADELPHIA --- Will Cummings scored 17 points and Jaylen Bond grabbed 16 rebounds as Temple posted to a 66-53 victory over East Carolina on Saturday for its seventh straight win.
Cummings was a perfect 7 of 7 from the line and had six assists. Jesse Morgan added 14 points and Josh Brown chipped in 10 for Temple (19-7, 10-3), which holds third place in the American Athletic Conference.
The Owls closed out the first half on a 10-1 run to lead 34-18 at the break, and East Carolina could get no closer than 11 points in the second half. A three-point play from Brown and a pair of free throws from Cummings gave Temple an 18-point advantage with 5:46 to play.
East Carolina made 7 of 15 3-pointers after halftime, scoring 12 straight points on 3s to pull within 51-40. The Owls then scored six unanswered to push the lead back out to 17 behind four free throws from Cummings and a basket inside from Bond.
The Owls didn't score in the final 4:20, but just five points from East Carolina wasn't enough to close the deficit.
Terry Whisnant scored 13 points for the Pirates (11-14, 4-8), while B.J. Tyson added nine and Lance Tejada scored eight.
The Pirates held Temple to just 36.8 percent shooting, but were out-rebounded 49-26 with the Owls pulling down 18 offensive boards. The Owls used their size advantage to score 28 points in the and get to the free throw 25 times, compared to just nine by ECU.
East Carolina continues to do an excellent job of sharing and taking care of the basketball with 14 assists against just seven turnovers. Tejada led the Pirates with four assists.
The Pirates return to action Wednesday, Feb. 18 at Tulsa. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. EST at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane narrowly defeated ECU in Greenville earlier this season, 66-64.
