GAMEDAY PREVIEW: East Carolina at Houston

Game 31: East Carolina at Houston
Date	Sunday, March 5
Time	4 p.m. (ET) / 3 p.m. (CT)
Location	Houston, Texas (Hofheinz Pavilion)
Television	CBS Sports Network \| Find Your Channel
Radio	105.9 FM Greenville \\\ 95.7 FM New Bern \\\ 101.1 FM Jacksonville
Web Coverage	Live Stats \\\ Listen Live
Game Notes	East Carolina \\\ Houston \\\ The American
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUScoreboard \\\ @ECUPirateHoops

East Carolina closes out the regular season Sunday when the Pirates visit Houston in the final game at Hofheinz Pavilion where the Pirates are 0-4 all-time. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network and can heard across the Pirate-IMG Sports Network and on the TuneIn app.

Sunday's game will have a direct impact on the upcoming American Basketball Championship tournament, which begins play on Thursday, March 9. ECU will play Temple on in the first round regardless of the outcome, but with a win they'll assure themselves the No. 8 seed whereas as loss, coupled with a Temple victory, would make it the No. 9 seed. Houston, which has already clinched a first round, will be the No. 3 seed with a win but will drop to the No. 4 seed with a loss.

The Pirates are coming off a 66-62 win over UCONN at home on Senior Night behind Caleb White's career-high 28 points, while the Cougars suffered a 65-47 loss at Cincinnati Thursday.

ECU will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak to the Cougars and earn its first win in the series since posting a 66-61 at home on January 14, 2015.

NEWS & NOTES

ECU as alternated wins and losses each of the last seven games and haven't won consecutive games since December. A victory would give the Pirates a program-best seven American Athletic Conference wins.
East Carolina will play its 12th game of the season under assistant coach Michael Perry who is serving as Pirates' Acting Head Coach while ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo continues to recover from hip replacement surgery on Jan. 16. The Pirates are 5-6 under Perry, who is in his 10th season as an assistant coach at East Carolina. Perry spent more than four years as the head coach at Georgia State before becoming a member of the Pirates' coaching staff.
UPCOMING MILESTONES: Andre Washington, who has blocked 89 shots this season, is two blocks shy of setting the ECU single-season record ... Jeremy Sheppard, who has handed out a team-best 95 assists, is three assists away from setting the ECU freshman season record for assists ... Kentrell Barkley is 10 points shy of 700 for his career and 23 short of 400 for the season ... White's next 3-pointer will be the 250th of his career.
White has scored double figures in six of the last seven games after scoring double digits in just two of the first 10 conference games. He's averaged 16.7 points over the last seven games shooting 46.4 percent (39-84) from the field and 40.0 percent (22-55) outside the arc.
Washington is averaging 3.5 blocks per game in conference play, swatting 59 opponent field goal attempts in 17 league games after averaging just 2.3 blocks per game in non-conference play. Washington ranks fourth in the nation blocks per game (3.0) and fifth in total blocks.
Sheppard is the top assist distributor among all American Athletic Conference freshmen, averaging 3.5 assists per game, and also ranks first among all league rookies with a 1.4 assist/turnover ratio. His 1.7 3s per game is also tied for the most among American rookies. He is the only freshman to rank among the top-15 in the league in assists per game and assist/turnover ratio in conference play.
Barkley has scored double figures in a career-long 11 straight games and has been the Pirates' leading scorer 10 times in conference play. In the last 11 games, he has averaged 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds.

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Players Mentioned

Kentrell Barkley

Jeremy Sheppard

Andre Washington

Caleb White

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