East Carolina University
UCF
ECU Travels To UCF For Regular Season Finale
March 07, 2020 | Men's Basketball
| Game 31: UCF Knights | |
| Date: | Sunday, March 8, 2020 |
| Time: | 2 p.m. EST |
| Location: | Orlando, Fla. (Addition Financial Center) |
| Live Game Coverage: | Stream: ESPNU | WatchESPN.com Radio: WTIB 103.7 FM | TuneIn Radio Online |
| Live Stats: | Statbroadcast |
| Game Notes: | ECU (PDF) | UCF (PDF) | The American (PDF) |
ORLANDO --- East Carolina returns to action for the first time in eight days on Sunday when it closes out the 2019-20 regular season against UCF at Addition Financial Arena.
The game has American Athletic Conference tournament implications as the Pirates enter he game one game back of UCF for 10th-place. The winner will be the No. 10 seed at next week's championship event while the loser will be the 11th seed.
The Pirates will be looking to snap an eight-game losing streak against UCF, whom they haven't beaten since sweeping the three-game season series in 2015 which included a first round American Athletic Conference Championship victory.
The Knights built a 17-point second half lead against ECU in Greenville last month, but the Pirates fought back and pulled within four with 40 seconds to play, but were unable to get inside of a possession.
Freshman Tristen Newton scored 23 points and Jayden Gardner added 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
As a freshman, Gardner scored 35 points and pulled down 20 rebounds against the Knights in Orlando last season, giving him a two-game career average of 25 points and 16 rebounds versus UCF.
The Knight enter the game fresh off a 61-58 victory over SMU on Wednesday night, while ECU has lost in two in a row.
UConn dealt the Pirates' an 84-63 loss in their home finale on Feb. 29. Newton poured in a career-high 25 points, but Gardner was limited to just nine points and held under double digit points for the first time this season.
Newton has scored double figures in 10 of the last 12 games, averaging 14.7 points game, and moved into second-place on the school's freshman assists record chart, needing just three to set a new mark.
Gardner has averaged 18.3 points per game during that same stretch and continues to lead the league in scoring with 19.8 per contest
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ECU and UCF are both averaging 68 points per game, but the Knights have held their opponents to 68.1 points while the Pirates are allowing 71.5 points per game. UCF has held each of its last two opponents under 68 points after surrendering 75 or more in the previous five games.
ECU scored over 68 points just once in the month of February, putting up 81 at Tulane.
Junior Collin Smith leads UCF with 12.6 points per game followed by Darrin Green and Caesar DeJesus with 9.7 points per game. Junior Dazon Ingram ranks among the top 10 in The American in rebounding and assists, leading the Knights in both categories.
Ingram is averaging 6.8 rebounds per game, which places him seventh among the league leaders while he is eighth with 3.6 assists per game.
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