East Carolina University
10-16,2-11AAC
USF
6-21,3-11AAC
USF Uses Size To Take Down East Carolina
February 16, 2016 | Men's Basketball
From wire and staff reports
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Jahmal McMurray scored 21 and Nehemias Morillo added 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range, to help USF beat East Carolina 69-52 inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum Tuesday night.
Jaleel Cousins added 10 points and 11 rebounds for USF (6-21, 3-11 The American), who snapped a four-game losing streak and sent ECU (10-16, 2-11) to its fifth consecutive defeat.
The Bulls dominated inside as they won the battle of the boards by 14 and had a plus-14 point-scoring margin in the paint. USF shot 50 percent from inside the arc (21 of 42), while connecting on 40 percent (6 of 15) of its 3-point attempts and had as many defensive rebounds as the Pirates had total, 30.
"I wasn't sure if we were going to beat them inside, but I knew we had a size advantage," USF Head Coach Orlando Antigua said. "At the same time, with having such size you have to worry about how fast they are, how you are going defend them and how you are going to move. Today we were fortunate that we were able to use our size to our advantage."
After ECU scored the game's first five points, the Bulls scored nine unanswered and never trailed again and built a 35-30 halftime lead,
The Pirates pulled within three, 44-41, with 13:25 to play, but USF used a 7-1 spurt to back by nine and East Carolina never got closer than five, 53-48, the remainder of the game.
USF scored 12 in a row to take a 65-48 lead, its biggest of the game, with 3:49 to play.
After a layup by B.J. Tyson trimmed the East Carolina deficit to six with 9:31 left, the Pirates went nearly seven minutes without a field goal as South Florida pulled away for good.
The Pirates shot just 29.6 percent from the field after halftime and finished at 34.0 percent overall.
"We did not play well offensively, it was maybe our worst game of the year," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "We couldn't make a shot. We couldn't even make a shot the last two minutes when they weren't trying to guard us. But give South Florida credit, they had a lot to do with that."
Caleb White led the Pirates with 13 points off the bench, while Kentrell Barkley added 10 points with a team-high seven rebounds.
Prince Williams was limited to nine points, ending his career-long streak of double-scoring games at seven, while Tyson was denied his 10th consecutive double-digit performance, scoring just nine points.
