ECU Falls To Tulsa In Conference Opener

Thursday, December 28

Tulsa, Okla.

5 p.m.

East Carolina University

6-6, 0-1

Tulsa

8-5, 1-0

ECU

Tulsa

December 28, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

RESULT
ECU dropped its American Athletic Conference opener at Tulsa Thursday afternoon, 79-53.

TURNING POINT
The Golden Hurricane opened the second half on a 13-4 run to build a 13-point lead, 44-31, in the first four minutes following halftime. Lawson Korita scored 10 points, including eight straight points, during the run. TU followed that with 17 unanswered points to lead by 24, 63-39, with 7:21 to play.

ECU PLAYER-OF-THE-GAME
Senior B.J. Tyson led the Pirates with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double … Tyson surpassed the 1,300-point mark for his career becoming the fourth player in the history of The American to reach that mark and eighth in ECU lore … Tyson currently ranks third on the league's all-time scoring list with 1,310 points.

TULSA PLAYER-OF-THE-GAME
Senior forward Junior Etou posted his second double-double of the season, finishing with 20 points and 14 rebounds.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
"The first half was encouraging, but we're still learning. Still learning how to win, still learning how to play. We don't have a lot of experience in terms of playing and winning on the road. They got their first introduction to playing on the road in the American Athletic Conference and it was a bitter pill to swallow, but we're going to get better as a result of it. We're going to learn from it and we're going to be back and we're going to be better." - ECU Interim Head Coach Michael Perry

KEY PERFORMERS
Freshman Shawn Williams made his first career start and scored 12 points, knocking down four 3-pointers … Senior Isaac Fleming handed out a game-high eight assists.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE AND MORE
The Pirates held Tulsa to 23.3 percent shooting in the final 15 minutes of the first half and only trailed by four at halftime, 31-27, after falling behind by 10 early (12-2) … Tulsa shot 52.8 percent in the second half, while the Pirates made just 29.1 percent of their second half field goal attempts … ECU's 13 turnovers were its third-fewest of the season (9 vs. Central Connecticut, 10 vs. UNCW) … TU scored 19 points off Pirate miscues and committed just five turnovers itself.

UP NEXT
ECU returns home Sunday, Dec. 31, to face UCF at 4 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.