ECU tees it up on Sunday with Temple in a game that is pivotal if the Pirates want to show marked improvement over their 10-21 season last year.
Currently the Pirates enter at 10-17 and 4-10 in AAC play. They have had several opportunities to win close league games but early deficits have found them running out of gas at the end.
At 14-12 and 6-7 in AAC play, Temple is 4-5 on the road and is fresh off a 93-89 double overtime win over UConn. Christian Vital played 48 minutes and led the Owls with 21 points and eight rebounds while Isaiah Whaley tossed in 18 points and 14 boards. James Bouknight generated 16 points and Jalen Gaffney had 12 in the victory at The Liacouras Center Thursday night.
The Owls have to be gassed, but two days of rest will have them at least mentally ready to go. Temple has Joe Dooley’s full attention as he continues to try to get his young Pirates over the mental hump of expecting to win ballgames.
“They’re obviously coming off of a big win against UConn in overtime,” Joe Dooley told PirateIllustrated.com, “They have an experienced backcourt with juniors and seniors with Pierre-Louis, Rose and Moore. They’re all experienced players and they’ve won a lot of games.”
“Winning is a learning process and we’ve got to learn how to win some of these deals,” Dooley stated after his team’s loss at Memphis earlier in the week, “We’ve had some opportunities and I think the good news is we’re in the game and we have opportunities. Now we need to figure some things out to make sure we win the game.”
J.J. Miles has been playing on a gimpy ankle and that was a factor in him playing just 12 minutes against Memphis where he scored just five points for ECU.
The Pirates did get a career high 23 points and 13 rebounds from Tristen Newton who is quickly turning into a real force in the American in the backcourt for the Pirates. Memphis limited Jayden Gardner to just 16 points. If ECU is going to win, all cylinders will have to be clicking.
ECU took Thursday off to recover and put in two solid workouts on Friday and Saturday in preparation for Sunday’s matchup. Hanging in there early in the game would go a long way toward getting a win on Sunday.
“We have not gotten off to the greatest starts. We just need to not dig so many holes,” Dooley told PI, “I also think there have also been some spurts in the second half where we’ve done the same thing.”
“We’ve got to finish things better, do a little bit better, but we’re right in every game with an opportunity to win. We’ve got to find some ways to do it.”
An 18-4 Temple second half run was the big difference in the Owls 76-64 early February defeat of ECU in Philadelphia. Quinton Rose led four Owls in double-figures with 20 points. The Owls got 14 points each for Alani Moore, Nate Pierre-Louis and J.P. Moorman who also grabbed a game high 10 rebounds. Rose got ten of his points from the charity stripe where he connected on 10 of 12.
Tremont Robinson-White had maybe his best game with a career high 21 points for ECU to lead all scorers. Tristen Newton added 14, but the league’s leading scorer Jayden Gardner scored just 11 points.
Gardner outlined the plan for Sunday when ECU takes on the Owls.
“Just to continue our run of confidence of being able to play anybody in this league, just getting a feel for everything going and keep getting our rest, try to get better and let’s get a hot streak going into the conference tournament,” said Gardner who talked about slow starts making it harder to win games that otherwise have been fairly winnable.
“I think that’s one of the only things that we attribute that we haven’t done well the last two games so if we get off to a fast start, maybe we won’t have to come back and maybe we can build on a lead we could have,” Gardner told PirateIllustrated.com, “It’s a learning experience and it’s new to these guys. We’re trying really hard.”
Gardner outlined what stands out about Temple.
“They’re just very sound defensively. They have really good shooters and playmakers and a little bit of everything. They have a post presence so we’ve just got to be solid on defense and get our in transition on offense.”
Last time, Temple made 49 percent from the field to just 39 percent for ECU. The Pirates hit just 4 for 17 shots from the arc while the Owls managed to make 10 of 25. The Pirates did have a solid outing from the foul line, making 16 of 19 but the three they missed came in crunch time let Temple off the hook when the game was on the line. Temple got to the stripe more frequently where they made 20 of 27 in the win.
“I think Rose is one of the better players in the league obviously. He can get a basket any second. Alani Moore played really good. He made some timely threes against us and (JP) Moorman played well," Dooley told the Pirate Sports Network after the game on Wednesday when asked about the Owls.
ECU committed just 11 turnovers that night and forced 14 Temple miscues which would have typically signaled a good outcome if the ball had gone in the basket a little more.
“An 18-4 run in the second half, that’s what did us in. I thought we finished the half the right way and made some plays,” Joe Dooley said, “They shots 58 percent in the second half but I thought the real big problem today was making threes. They made ten and we made four. That’s the big difference. Obviously we didn’t get some timely stops and I thought we took some ill advised shots.”
In the end, the Pirates did not have an answer for Quinton Rose who in addition to scoring twenty points, pulled down six rebounds and got to the foul line with regularity where he made 10 of his 12 attempts.
“The difference in the game was really Rose. He took over in the second half and got to wherever he wanted,” Dooley said, “He’s mature, he made a crafty play on the baseline out of bounds where he shot faked - late clock and made savvy plays. That’s the reason he’s being considered for all-league. He’s been through the wars and I told our freshmen it’s just some things that you have to learn as we progress. He made some veteran plays, caused fouls and he shot a bunch of free throws. We did enough things to keep us around and then we did some things that backfired on us.”
The Pirates enter the game with a team that has taken some wear and tear along the way including J.J. Miles who has had a banged up ankle of late, but Dooley says everyone is ready to go.
“Everybody’s hurt this time of year. Everybody’s tired, everybody’s sore - no one cares,” said Dooley, “We’ve got to get up and play. We’re good so far..”
Game time is set for 12 noon in Minges Coliseum on Sunday for East Carolina - Temple on ESPN U.
PI AUDIO: JOE DOOLEY PREVIEWS TEMPLE
