Gameday: ECU Tips American Championship Off Versus Wichita State

Thursday, March 14

Memphis, TN

10 PM

East Carolina University

Wichita State

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

Gameday: ECU Tips American Championship Off Versus Wichita State

March 13, 2019 | Men's Basketball

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The American Basketball Championship First Round: vs. No. 6 Wichita State
Date:	Thursday, March 14, 2019
Time:	10 p.m. EDT / 9 p.m. CDT
Location:	Memphis, Tenn. (FedExForum)
Live Game Coverage:	Radio: WNCT 107.9 FM \| TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPNU
Internet Options:	Live Stats
Game Notes:	ECU (PDF) \| WSU (PDF) \| The American

ECU and Wichita State will meet for the second time in 10 days and third time this season when they face off Thursday, March 14, in the first round of the 2019 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship at the FedExForum in Memphis.

The Pirates and Shockers will play the nightcap of the first round with a scheduled tip-time of approximately 10 p.m. EDT.

ECU enters the tournament on a four-game losing streak. Included in the streak is its road loss at Wichita State on March 5. The Shockers held the Pirates to 35.6 percent shooting and 3-of-15 outside the arc. Isaac Fleming led ECU with 17 points versus WSU with Shawn Williams scoring 12 and Rico Quinton posting his first career double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds).

Fleming has become more of an offensive contributor late in the season, scoring double figures in 12 of the last 16 games after he scored double figures only three times in ECU's first 14 games of the season. In the last six games, Fleming has averaged 16.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg and 6.3 apg during this current stretch.

He was the only Pirate to average double figures against the Shockers this season with 14.0 points per contest.

ECU will be without third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder Seth LeDay for the second straight game after going down with a season-ending knee injury at Wichita State last week.

Quinton was injured in practice Friday and didn't play Sunday against UConn.

"We played a little small (on Sunday), so we'll evaluate it," ECU Head Coach Joe Dooley said. "One of the things is Wichita is very big, so maybe we can incorporate a K.J. Davis or a Tyler Foster or Addison Hill to play some minutes at a position they haven't played a ton of this year."

The Shockers out-rebounded the Pirates by an average of 14.5 per game in the two previous meetings this season, and limited ECU freshman Jayden Gardner, the conference's second-leading rebounder, to 5.5 per game, three below his season average.

Gardner, who needs six points to set the ECU freshman scoring record, was named to The American All-Freshman team Monday. He averaged 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game and was the only player to be ranked among the Top-10 in the conference in both categories.

Williams will need to continue his torrid shooting from 3 to combat the Shockers' size advantage. He has averaged 16.75 points per game the last eight contests, while shooting 49.2 percent (31-of-63) from beyond the 3-point arc.

Both teams ranks in the bottom fourth of the conference in scoring, field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage.

The winner advances to face No. 3 seed Temple in the quarterfinals Friday night.