Pirates Suffer Hard-Fought Defeat To No. 22 Cincinnati

Sunday, January 15

Greenville, N.C.

4 p.m.

East Carolina University

9-10 1-5AAC

Cincinnati

15-2,5-0AAC

Cincinnati

East Carolina

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

January 15, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Kyle Washington had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 22 Cincinnati beat East Carolina 55-46 on Sunday for its eighth straight win.

Jacob Evans III added 10 points for the Bearcats (15-2, 5-0 American Athletic Conference), who overcame their own shooting struggles by making things even tougher on a Pirates team missing its top scorer.

Freshman Elijah Hughes scored 18 points in his first start and fellow freshman Jeremy Sheppard added 13 for East Carolina (9-10, 1-5).

Cincinnati entered with the nation's No. 3 defense according to Ken Pomeroy's advanced statistics, and the Bearcats held East Carolina to 25 percent from the field and to 4-of-23 shooting from 3-point range. The 46 points allowed was a season best.

The Bearcats' trademark toughness led the way in this one, building a 47-36 rebounding advantage and blocking nine shots while holding yet another opponent well under 70 points. Now the challenge is getting the offense clicking again.

The Pirates' first game without top scorer B.J. Tyson, who injured his leg in a loss to Houston last time out, also marked the last one before coach Jeff Lebo starts a leave of absence Monday to have hip surgery. Their defense played well enough to steal this one, but the offense outside of Hughes and Sheppard was virtually nonexistent -- the rest of the team was a combined 5 of 30.

IT'S A GAME OF RUNS

Cincinnati scored the game's first seven points before ECU put together a 15-6 run to take a 15-13 lead on Hughes' third 3-pointer in the first 9:06.
That was followed by an 8-1 Cincinnati spurt that put the Bearcats ahead to stay.
Caupain scored eight straight points to give Cincinnati a 29-21 lead after Hughes made 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game at 21-all. The Bearcats led 31-23 at halftime.
Leading by six, 35-29, the Bearcats doubled their lead over a 6:21 stretch for a 45-33 advantage with 7:55 to play. The lead never dipped below eight the remainder of the game.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

ECU held Cincinnati to its lowest field goal percentage and lowest point total of the season. The Bearcats were also held to 32.8 percent shooting at Temple and 55 points at Iowa State.
The Pirates shot over 70 percent from the free throw line for the third consecutive game.
The Pirates rejected eight Cincinnati field goal attempts, the most shots the Bearcats have had blocked this season.
Freshman Elijah Hughes made his first career start. Hughes scored all 16 of his game-high 18 points in the first half.
Hughes and Sheppard scored each of ECU's 23 first half points. Sheppard came off the bench to score seven points in the initial 20 minutes.
Sheppard scored double figures for the first time since scoring double digits in five straight games from Dec. 3-22. Hughes posted his fourth double-figure scoring game of the season, third in conference play.
Washington was the first player not named Hughes or Sheppard to score for ECU and his basket came 1:52 into the second half.
Washington blocked five shots in a game for the fifth time this season.
Kentrell Barkley grabbed double-digit rebounds for the fourth time this year.
B.J. Tyson missed the first game of his ECU career. He had played in all 83 games the previous two and one-half years prior to missing tonight's contest.

THINGS SAID IN THE PRESS ROOM
ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo
On the Pirates' performance
"I told my team tonight that I was really proud of them. I was proud to be their coach tonight. I thought we battled really hard. We executed our game plan defensively and executed offensively against a good team but we just couldn't put the ball in the basket again.

"If we could've just gotten a few to go. Every time we had a chance to get one or two of them to go we just could not put the ball in the basket and you can see it in their eyes that they are hoping that it'll go in instead of shooting it and thinking it's going to go in. Our shots were there and they're a hard team to get shots against. You've got to go one-on-one a bit. They switch a lot of screens and they're the top scoring team in our league. But defensively, fifty-five points here at home, that's a good night's work on the defensive end."

On this being his last game before undergoing hip surgery
"No it didn't feel very different until after the game, when I had to tell them goodbye and had to leave. I've never had that before in 30 years of coaching. That was a hard part. I've never had to separate from my group before. I've been a little nervous about my surgery so at least the game kept my mind off it for a little while."

Freshman Elijah Hughes
"I've been working really hard Coach Netti the past three or four days, so my confidence was just like really high today."

"[The losing streak] is annoying, but we're working hard every day. It's like Jeremy said, most of our losses are because we're just missing shots. Once we get confident again and Caleb starts hitting, KB starts hitting, Jeremy keeps hitting, myself, we're going to be fine."

Freshman Jeremy Sheppard
"We're still in this little slump with us making shots. So, we're still kind of trying to get into the flow of it, but one of these games our shot is going to come back and it will be a beautiful feeling."

"We just are all going to stick together. We're still one big family and we're still going to work hard as if he was here."

NEXT GAME
ECU will return to the hardwood Sunday, Jan. 22, against UConn at the XL Center in Hartford. Tip-off is set for 6:05 on CBS Sports Network.