ECU Opens Tournament Play Against USF
March 09, 2016 | Men's Basketball
ORLANDO - East Carolina and USF took turns beating up each other on their opponents' respective home court in a pair of regular season matchups and will now move to a neutral court to settle the season series Thursday in the First Round of The American Basketball Championship.
The eighth seeded Pirates (12-19) and ninth-seeded Bulls (7-24) will meet for the third time in less than a month to open this year's tournament at 3:30 p.m. inside the Amway Center.
The winner captures the season series and earns a quarterfinal matchup with top seed Temple (20-10) on Friday at noon.
East Carolina won the most recent game in the series in Tampa two weeks ago, holding the Bulls to 27.9 percent shooting from the field in a 52-39 victory. The Pirates allowed just 16 first half points. Lance Tejada scored five straight points to extend their lead to 43-25 with 9:18 to play and ECU cruised from there.
Caleb White (12), B.J. Tyson (10) and Tejada (11) combined for 33 points after the trio scored just 25 in the first meeting with USF. Freshman Kentrell Barkley sat out the game against USF in Tampa, suffering flu-like symptoms.
USF freshman Jahmal McMurray scored just five points and Nehemias Morillo was held scoreless after the duo had torched ECU for 39 points inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in February.
USF dominated interior play two weeks earlier in Greenville, en route to a 69-52 win as the Bulls out-rebounded the Pirates by 14 and outscored them in the paint by the same margin. USF used a 12-0 late in the second half to turn a five-point into a 17-point victory.
White was the only ECU player to score in double figures in both games against USF going for 13 and 12. Prince Williams failed to reach double figures in either game, while Tyson averaged just 9.5 points. Barkley had 10 points and seven rebounds at home versus the Bulls.
The only USF player to reach double digits in both games against the Pirates was Jaleel Cousins, who had a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds) in the win and 13 points in the loss.
An ECU win on Thursday would even the all-time series at six and would make coach Jeff Lebo just the third coach in the history of Pirate basketball to win 100 games.
East Carolina is 4-0 under Lebo in conference tournament "First Round" games.
| Game 32: vs. USF (The American Basketball Championship First Round) | |
| Date | Thursday, March 10 |
| Time | 3:30 p.m. EST |
| Location | Orlando, Fla. (Amway Center) |
| Tickets | Buy Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage |  TV/Online: ESPNU/WatchESPN Radio: Pirate IMG Sports Network | ECU Pirates On Demand (Listen Live) TuneIn Radio Online (within the app search ECU or Pirate IMG Sports Network) |
| Live Stats | StatBroadcast.com |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | USF |
| @ECUScoreboard | |
