ECU has best of both worlds in win|Morrow's late shot sinks Charlotte

Published 9:13 am Thursday, December 2, 2010

By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — Pirates’ fans taunted the Charlotte supporters with chants of “we got football!,” which left the 49ers’ faithful to sarcastically reply “we have basketball!” However, the truth was that on Wednesday night East Carolina had the best of both worlds as it won a 62-61 thriller over Charlotte on the same night the Pirates held a ceremony to celebrate the football team’s invitation to the Military Bowl.
The Pirates (6-2, Conference USA) battled back from a 13-point second half deficit and held a nine point lead with a little under five minutes left in the game. However, the Purple and Gold faithful almost had to put the celebration on hold as Charlotte’s Gokhan Sirin drilled a deep three-pointer from the top of the court to allow the 49ers (3-5, Atlantic 10) to take a 61-59 lead with 14.1 seconds on the clock.
After ECU first-year coach Jeff Lebo called a timeout, Pirates’ point guard Brock Young dribbled up the length of the court where a screen was set by Darrius Morrow, who slipped into the paint as Young swung the ball to Erin Straughn on the right wing, who then proceed to dump the ball down low to Morrow.
With the clock ticking towards zero, Morrow powered up a shot and seemingly willed the ball into the basket as he was fouled by Phil Jones to tie the game at 61 with 3.8 showing on the game clock.
Morrow, who finished the game with 11 points and eight rebounds, calmly hit the biggest free throw of his career to give ECU its fourth straight win of the season.
“Honestly, I have never been in a situation like that,” Morrow said. “At first when I thought about it I was nervous, but once I focused in and realized if I miss this free throw it could be overtime or they could hit a shot in 3.8 seconds. … It was a good situation to be in.”
After the Morrow free throw Charlotte called a timeout and drew up a play but it was to no avail. Jones ended the game by hurling a shot from about mid-court that never looked like it had a chance.
The win for East Carolina not only avenged its 74-63 loss to the 49ers earlier in the season, but served as character-building victory as the team survived a close game in a charged atmosphere that featured several runs by both teams.
“The game was just a great game. It was a great game to watch; it was a game of runs,” Lebo said. “I think they got up 10 or 12 on us, then we battled back. … I thought our execution at the end of the game was outstanding … We needed a game like this to give us a little bit of confidence.”
Coming off the bench for the second night in a row, guard Jontae Sherrod was on fire from downtown as he tied a career-high by making five threes en route to a game-high 19 points for the Pirates.
ECU point guard Brock Young continued to show improvement in the movement of his knee and was second on the team in scoring with 14 points, while dishing out a team-best six assists. Young’s effort left him two points short of the 1,000 mark.
Young was a key catalyst in the Pirates’ 14-2 run which helped them take a pivotal 56-48 lead with under seven minutes left in the game.
“As a captain this year my job is to lead by example,” Young said. “They kept telling me ‘attack in transition, attack in transition.’ Their guards were getting tired, so as I kept attacking; it was opening up on the outside … which opened up the middle.”
The 49ers, who were playing without their top point scorer Shamari Spears who was dismissed from the 49ers after breaking team rules, where led by Jones’ 14-point, 10-rebound effort.