Pirates Hold Off Tulsa To End Streak

Wednesday, January 25

Greenville, N.C.

7 p.m.

East Carolina University

10-11 2-6AAC

Tulsa

11-8, 5-2AAC

Team	1	2	F
Tulsa	24	42	66
East Carolina	29	40	69

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

January 25, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Kentrell Barkley had 19 points and 11 rebounds and East Carolina held on to defeat Tulsa 69-66 on Wednesday night to end a six-game losing streak.

Elijah Hughes added 12 points, Andre Washington had eight with 12 rebounds and three blocks and Deng Riak had six points with 11 boards for the Pirates (10-11, 2-6 American).

Tulsa (11-8, 5-2), which had won four straight, was down by 13 with 8:14 to play. A 3-point play by Jaleel Wheeler pulled the Golden Hurricanes with 67-66 with 1:03 remaining.

Tulsa missed its last four shots, including two 3-pointers and an attempted dunk on its last possession after Barkley made two free throws for East Carolina with 20 seconds left.

Junior Itou had 18 of his career-high 31 points in the second half, including eight in the closing run, for Tulsa. He also grabbed 12 rebounds for his fifth double-double.

IT'S A GAME OF RUNS

The Pirates fell behind 10-4, but scored eight unanswered to take a 12-10 lead with four different players scoring.
With the game tied at 22-all, ECU ended the half on a 7-2 run and led 29-24 at intermission.
East Carolina took a 10-point lead, 39-29, less than four minutes into the second half. It was their first double digit lead since beating USF by 11 on Dec. 28.
Tulsa pulled within seven, 44-37, with 12:20 to play before ECU nearly doubled that advantage with a 12-6 run and led 56-43.
The Golden Hurricane followed with a 22-11 run to trim the Pirates' lead to one, 67-66, with 1:03 remaining.

STREAKS SNAPPED

With its 69-66 win over Tulsa, East Carolina not only ended a six-game losing streak, it also ended a six-game overall slide against the Golden Hurricane and stopped a five-game losing streak at home to Tulsa.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

ECU's 69 points were it most scored in an American Athletic Conference game this season.
The Pirates posted a first-half season-high for rebounds with 30. It was the second time this year they grabbed 30 rebounds in a half. ECU pulled down 35 rebounds in the second half against Stetson.
ECU shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half. It was the first time it made half of its shots in a half since shooting 64.0 percent in the second half against UNCW.
Tulsa averaged 30.3 points per game in the paint over the previous 16 games. ECU held them to 16 points tonight.
The Golden Hurricane trio of Will Magnay, Sterling Taplin and Pat Birt were averaging a combined 24.9 points per game. The Pirates limited the threesome to 12.
After starting the game 1-for-10, East Carolina shot 42.5 percent (20-of-47) the remainder of the game.

PLAYER STUFF

Barkley led ECU in scoring for the second straight game and seventh in the last nine. He also posted his fourth double-double of the year finishing the game with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Barkley made a career-high 10 free throws
Graduate transfer Andre Washington recorded his fifth double-digit rebounding game of the season and second in the last four games.
Redshirt freshman Deng Riak set a new career-high for rebounds with 11.
ECU had three players grab double digit rebounds for the second time this season. Washington (16), Clarence Williams (13) and Barkley (11) each had double figure rebounds against Stetson.

FROM THE PRESS ROOM
ECU Acting Head Coach Michael Perry
Opening statement
"Well surely tonight was a special night for our group. Obviously 2017 has not rewarded us with any wins so far so getting our first win in 2017 was really special tonight. And as a coach, there's no greater feeling than hearing your kids, that sound in the locker room of your kids, the excitement that they have. Particularly it was well earned because they've gone through a lot of adversity in terms of, what basketball kind of throws at you, you know, college basketball. From a head coach going out, to losing a leading scorer, and just a lot of adversity that this game often throws at you, and kids have to have some perseverance and they certainly have been fighting through that. It was great to be rewarded tonight with a W."

On talking to Head Coach Jeff Lebo about the victory later
"It's going to be pretty special, I can't wait to get out of here and talk to him. I was just talking to his wife, Melissa, outside and she knows the history with certain programs. And there are a lot of programs here we have not had a lot of success against, and this is one of them. So obviously getting a win against Tulsa is big for our program, because we're not just playing against this current Tulsa team, we're playing against this tradition that they've had. And although we haven't had that tradition, every game is an opportunity for us to start building our own tradition."

Sophomore Kentrell Barkley
On stepping to the free throw line with the game on the line
"I just felt like I needed to take my time and just shoot it instead of just getting nervous on the line, and don't think about it too much about it. And that's what I did the last two shots, just shoot the shot."

Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith
"We didn't play well. We played our absolute worst game of the year. We didn't deserve to win. We didn't block out, we didn't execute on offense, we took poor shots, we just didn't do a good job. I was real disappointed with our effort.. We have to play with a high level of intensity and effort every night and we didn't do that tonight."

NEXT TIP-OFF

East Carolina returns to action Saturday, Jan. 28, at Memphis. The game is scheduled for 3:30 EST/2:30 CST at FedExForum.