B.J. Tyson managed to score 18 points but it wasn’t enough to pick up a senior night victory as Tulsa outscored the Pirates by twelve in the second half. That proved to be largely the difference in a 72-58 win Thursday night in Greenville.
Martins Igbanu scored 16 points to lead five players in double-figures for the Golden Hurricane that improved their record to 18-11 and 11-6 in AAC play with the victory.
Tulsa went deep into the bench that outscored ECU’s bench 25-6 and that paid dividends later in the ballgame. Tulsa held ECU to just 35.5 percent shooting from the floor and just 8 of 25 from three-point land while managing to go 9 of 24 from the arc and 40.3 percent from the floor overall.
“I was really proud of the effort of my team tonight. To be able to bounce back from a very difficult loss in Houston on Sunday and come back and put this kind of effort and performance together speaks volumes about their character and the resilience that they have as a group,” interim ECU head coach Michael Perry said after the game.
“I would have liked to be able to finish this game off and that’s something that’s been a challenge for us all year - being a better finisher. The effort was there to put yourself in a position to be able to win a basketball game and we wanted to be able to do that.”
Tulsa got to the stripe 22 times where they connected on 13 of them while ECU was limited to just nine free throw attempts, good for just six points.
“It was a pretty interesting game. In the first half, we did shoot the ball better. Both teams shot over forty percent from the field but in the second half both teams were struggling and they were able to get to the free throw line and create some distance," Perry said, "I think they were in the bonus at about the 14 minute mark and that was the big difference in the game, particularly in a game when both teams are struggling to shoot the ball. I thought that was a key with them getting into the bonus early.”
Tyson was one of three ECU seniors playing their last game in Greenville and he will go down in the record books in the top five all-time in scoring for the Pirates. His 18 points puts him at 1,547 career points which trails Caleb White in fourth place all-time by just 31 points with at least two more games to play.
Perry was complementary about the contributions that Tyson has made to the fabric of ECU basketball history and the university overall.
“Obviously it was very emotional for him. He’s an emotional player and wears his emotions on his sleeves as you can see. I can’t say enough about him and not just because of his ability on the floor, but his ability off the floor. As good a player as he has been on the floor he’s been even better off the floor.”
“He’s done a great job for us in terms of being an ambassador not just for our basketball program and athletic department but for our university. I salute him for that. As a coach that’s what you want to have.”
For Tyson it was an emotional night and he talked about coming out of the game for the last time in Greenville.
“It was emotional. I gave it my all here my whole career. I rarely took shots during warm ups, just sitting in the middle of half court wandering back and forth just thinking about this being my last time,” said Tyson, “It hit me Tuesday night just thinking. I did a lot here. I’m thankful, I’m grateful but I’ve just got to move on and play like I’ve been playing.”
“I came in with the mindset that I was going to be aggressive and do what I do. It was just one of those nights where I couldn’t hit in the first half, but they started falling in the second half.”
Daquan Jeffries scored three times in the first eight minutes to give Tulsa a three-point 21-18 lead with 11:34 to go in the half.
After a pair of Tulsa treys from Sterling Taplin, Shawn Williams’ four point play kept ECU within shouting distance at 35-29. Then Williams canned two more three pointers to pull the Pirates to within one at 36-35 with 2:38 to go before the intermission.
Fleming managed to tie the game for ECU at 39-39 for his game leading fourteenth point with 1:15 left in the half, before a pair of Corey Henderson free throws gave Tulsa a two-point 41-39 lead at the break.
Martins Igbanu and Corey Henderson, Jr. led Tulsa in the first twenty minutes with eight points each. Shawn Williams had 14 and Aaron Jackson had 10 points but neither would scratch in the second half.
The Golden Hurricane took advantage of average ECU shooting in the second twenty minutes and a pair of Igbanu free throws had Tulsa up by twelve points with 11:28 remaining in the contest.
ECU managed to cut the lead to eleven with just under a minute to play before falling by fourteen in the end. It was the Pirates’ 18th loss of the season with just 10 wins to go along with a 4-13 conference record.
ECU has just one game left in the regular season on Sunday when the Pirates travel to Memphis.
