Late Run Pushes Memphis Past ECU

Wednesday, February 13

Greenville, NC

7 PM

East Carolina University

9-15, 2-10

Memphis

15-10, 7-5

Memphis

ECU

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

February 13, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Press Conference Photo Gallery

GREENVILLE, N.C. – For the second time this season, a young ECU squad battled a more experienced Memphis team tooth and nail for nearly 40 minutes, but in the end came up short for a second time.

Senior Jeremiah Martin had 31 points as Memphis defeated ECU, 79-69, inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum Wednesday night.

"We did some good things enough to keep ourselves in position to win the game," ECU Head Coach Joe Dooley said. "One of the biggest differences is a guy like Martin, who jumps up and makes plays and provides what seniors should do. He made a lot of big play at the end game and that's hopefully where we'll evolve into in the future. Older guys making plays and teaching younger guys to create stuff, but, I think our guys competed.

"We were better at not turning it over, we did a better job on the backboard, but we just couldn't get enough timely stops."

It was Martin's second 30-point performance at Minges Coliseum after scoring 33 here a year ago.

Mike Parks Jr. had 12 points for Memphis (15-10, 7-5 American Athletic Conference). Isaiah Maurice added seven rebounds. Alex Lomax had six assists for the visiting team.

The Tigers built an eight-point lead in the first nine minutes of the game, but ECU (9-15, 2-10) wouldn't allow them to gain a double-digit lead and pulled even at 37-all with 2:08 left in the opening frame despite playing without senior Isaac Fleming, who left the game with an injury midway through the first half.

"He's the one guy that can go get a shot on the perimeter," Dooley said. "He's the one guy that can dribble by somebody, get to the rim, put pressure [on the defense] and force rotation. Even though we had no ability to drive the ball downhill, we did a good job of moving the ball and not turning it over."

Martin buried a 3 just before the halftime buzzer to give Memphis a 40-37 halftime lead shooting 58 percent in from the field, while ECU connected on 45.5 percent of its first half shots.

Memphis finished the game at 56.0 percent shooting and ECU tapered off after halftime and finished at 39.7 percent.

The Tigers maintained the lead for the first 8:31 of the second half until Seth LeDay made a pair of free throws to give ECU a one-point advantage, but the Pirates were never able to put any distance between themselves and Memphis.

ECU took its final lead of the night on a free throw by Jayden Gardner, 61-60, with 8:11 to play. Tyler Harris answered with jumper and put the Tigers ahead for good.

Back-to-back 3s from Martin put Memphis up by seven with under six minutes remaining. Shawn Williams brought ECU within 3, 68-65, with 4:26 to go. The Tigers then scored five unanswered points as they ended the game on a 19-6 over the final eight minutes.

"Coach Dooley does a great job and they have guys that just play with energy," Memphis Head Coach Penny Hardaway said. "For the most part, every time [ECU] ran out, we sustained and then got back to where we were. They're always going to give us problems because they play hard. Any team that plays hard will always be in the game."

LeDay finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Williams scored 14, Gardner 13 with K.J. Davis and Tyler Foster netting 10 each.

ECU will look to end its four-game slide Sunday against Tulsa at 2 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.