Pirates Face Temple In A Saturday Night Special
January 08, 2016 | Men's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA --- As East Carolina prepares for its second straight conference road game, it hopes to implement Houston's game plan and give home standing Temple its second straight loss inside the Liacouras Center Saturday.
Houston took down the Owls by holding them to a season-low 50 points and allowing Temple to shoot just 34.5 percent, including a woeful 3-of-23 outside the arc. In addition the Cougars also sent Temple to the free throw line nine times and won the battle of the boards by 11.
The Cougars claimed the victory by shooting 54.4 percent, four days after Temple had held Cincinnati to 40 percent shooting and upsetting the Bearcats.
Statistically, East Carolina had the ability to duplicate Houston's feat as the Pirates are 10th in the nation in 3-point field goal percent defense, rank fifth in The American in scoring defense and have made nearly 100 more free throws than their opponents have attempted.
However, momentum enters the game on Temple's side after junior John Brown hit a jumper in the lane with 2.6 seconds to play to lift the Owls over No. 23 UConn in Hartford on Tuesday, a week after they took down No. 22 Cincinnati on their home court.
East Carolina has lost two in a row and is still searching for their first road win of the season. The Pirates had opportunities to steal wins at California, College of Charleston and James Madison, but were unable to close them out.
"On the road, we've had multiple opportunities in the last three minutes of games in close games and haven't been able to finish," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "We've got to have guys who are going to be able to make some plays in the last three minutes of a game."
The players that Lebo would like to see make those plays include the Pirates' leading scorer B.J. Tyson and their top perimeter shooter Caleb White.
Tyson and White are the fourth-highest scoring duo in the league at 28.3 points per game (ppg) and ranks one and two on the team. Freshman Kentrell Barkley leads ECU with 6.4 rebounds per game and ranks third in scoring (9.9 rpg).
White is one of only two players in The American to rank among the top-10 in free throw percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. The other is Temple senior Quenton DeCosey.
DeCosey ranks sixth in the conference in scoring with 14.9 ppg and is the only player on his team to average double figures with three other players averaging between 9.0 - 9.8 ppg.
Six-foot-eight, 240-lb senior Jaylen Bond leads the Owls with 7.5 rebounds per game.
The Pirates dropped both of its games against Temple last season, losing 66-53 in Philadelphia and 70-56 in Greenville.
| Game 16: at Temple | |
| Date | Saturday, Jan. 9 |
| Time | 9 p.m. EST |
| Location | Philadelphia (Liacouras Center) |
| Tickets | Buy Tickets |
| TV/Video Streaming Coverage |  ESPNEWS/WatchESPN |
| Live Play-By-Play |  WNCT 107.9 FM | ECU Pirates On Demand (Listen Live) TuneIn Radio Online (within the app search ECU or Pirate IMG Sports Network) |
| Live Stats | SideArm Stats |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | Temple |
| @ECUScoreboard | |
