Pirates Fall At Home To South Florida, 71-60

Wednesday, January 31

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

11-11,4-5AAC

South Florida

14-5,7-1AAC

South Fla.

East Carolina

January 31, 2024 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina men's basketball team's hopes of winning a third straight conference contest came to a halt on Wednesday night as the Pirates fell 71-60 to South Florida inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

Cam Hayes led the Pirates (11-11, 4-5 AAC) with a season-high 14 points on 7-of-14 shooting but the rest of the team combined to go 17-of-47 from the floor and ECU shot under 40 percent as a team for the fourth straight game.

RJ Felton scored in double figures for the 14th straight game with 13 points.

Chris Youngblood led the Bulls (14-5, 7-1 AAC) with a game-high 20 points and Kasean Pryor and Selton Miguel each added 14 points.

Coming off of a program-record 18 threes made against UTSA, South Florida drained three straight shots from downtown to race out to a quick 11-0 lead, forcing the Pirates to burn a timeout early. ECU would finally get on the board after a Hayes jumped and the junior guard would score the first six points for the Pirates followed by a Bobby Pettiford Jr. layup to cut the Bulls' lead to five with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Bulls would extend their lead back to 10 before ECU responded to make it 22-20 after an impressive Felton block led to a score from Valentino Pinedo. South Florida would once again have an answer for the Pirates' rally, pushing its lead to as much as 15 and taking a 40-28 lead going into the break due in large part to eight made threes in the first half.

ECU would mount another comeback in the middle stages of the second half, cutting the Bulls' lead to five again but would fail to score off a turnover that would have cut the Bulls' lead to three and South Florida used an 8-0 spurt to push its lead to 58-45 with nine minutes to go and would remain up by double figures the rest of the way.

Up Next
East Carolina will face in-state foe Charlotte on the road Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPNU.