ECU Offense Sputters and Wichita State Picks Up First Road Win
Samajae Haynes-Jones fired in 18 points to go along with 14 from Marcis McDuffie to lead Wichita State past ECU Wednesday night in Minges Coliseum for their first road win of the season 65-49.
Isaac Fleming and Jayden Gardner led ECU with eleven points apiece for a Pirate team that hit just 34 percent of their shots from the floor and only 3 of 12 from the arc.
“That’s the best we’ve played on the road all year on the road and it took that kind of effort to win a game like this,” Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall said, “We obviously with our road record knew that we couldn’t take anything for granted and we knew we’d have to play well and we did.”
“Samajae was tremendous offensively, our big guys were tremendous on the glass. Dexter Dennis did a great job guarding Gardner so all and all it added up,” said Marshall.
ECU head coach Joe Dooley recapped his team’s play Wednesday night.
“Wichita State did a good job of putting us in some tough spots offensively. I thought as it progressed our lack of energy and competitiveness was evident. Obviously Haynes-Jones controlled the whole game, McDuffie was great,” Joe Dooley said afterward, “Our offense was horrific. That was the big tell tale sign.”
“They just outplayed us tonight. We didn’t come ready to play,” said Jayden Gardner, “The coach was disappointed in us and we’re disappointed in ourselves. We can’t play like that.”
Nine Markis McDuffie points had the Shockers up by fourteen at 34-20 at halftime against an ECU team that seemingly couldn’t buy a basket.
Isaac Fleming led the Pirates with just six points in the first twenty minutes.
The Pirates hit just 32 percent from the floor in the first half to 40 percent for Wichita State including just under 17 percent on one of six shooting from the arc.
Wichita’s lead remained substantial at 48-34 with nine minutes remaining before a pair of Samajae Hayes-Jones buckets and a Dexter Davis trey had the Shockers by 21 at the four minute mark and the rest was academic.
ECU hit just 34.6 percent for the game on 18 of 52 shooting as the Pirates dipped to 9-13 and 2-8 league play. The Shockers got 18 points from their bench in the victory to even their record at 11-11 on the season and 4-6 in AAC play.
PI Postgame: ECU Coach Joe Dooley
