By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE – East Carolina ripped off a 25-5 run in the second half and that only brought it within seven points of Marshall.
It was that kind of night for the Pirates as their defense forced 28 turnovers and swiped 18 steals but the offense could only make 39 percent of its shots as it fell 78-65 to the Thundering Herd in a heated Conference USA rivalry game on Saturday.
The last time these two teams clashed the Pirates (13-11, 5-5) rallied back from a 12-point second half deficit to steal an 82-81 victory on the road thanks to a career-high 33-point effort from forward/center Darrius Morrow.
On Saturday, Marshall (16-9, 4-6) refused to let Morrow beat it as it double teamed the ECU big man for a majority of the game. Morrow, who finished with a mere seven points and two rebounds, could not solve the Herd trap and the Pirates as a team never made Marshall pay for using the extra defender.
“We didn’t (double team) as much at our place and obviously he had a career-night with 33,” said Marshall coach Tom Herrion, who is the brother of former ECU coach Bill Herrion. “We kind of wanted to put it on and take it off because they shoot the ball so well from three. … We didn’t want to open the three-point game for them, but Morrow is such a load for us to handle that we had to double him.”
The lack of production in the paint, coupled with an inconsistent night from the ECU shooters, equated to doom for the Pirates.
“You have to credit their defense tonight, they took away my post touches,” Morrow said.
When Morrow did catch the ball, he was instructed to pass out or make a move before the double team came, but the forward had trouble finding his shooters. When he did hit the shooters, their shots weren’t falling.
“I felt like I could make (a move) I would just go, but it was a good double team,” Morrow said. “I was just looking for the open shooter; we just weren’t hitting shots tonight.”
East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo said his team just did not handle the Marshall defense as well as he would have liked.
“They didn’t defend (point guard Corvonn Gaines), that was their strategy, they sunk down on Morrow and doubled him big-to-big and we had a hard time with it,” Lebo said. “It’s easy to take one guy out of the game and they did a good job. When we did get it in to him he missed some shots that he typically makes.”
ECU sharpshooter Jamar Abrams hit his first shot of the game, a three-pointer, to give the Pirates their only lead of the game, 3-0. After that, Abrams was no where to be found as those were the only points he scored all game.
East Carolina’s leading scorer Jontae Sherrod (15 ppg) was streaky all night and tallied a team-high 19 points but shot only 1-6 from downtown.
Senior point guard Brock Young came off the bench to score 18 points and hit some big shots down the stretch. However, the Pirates could not shake off a first half in which they shot 7-23 (30 percent) from the floor, 3-13 (23 percent) from beyond the arc and 4-10 (40 percent) from the free throw line.
“It was a tough night for us. We battled hard but we dug ourselves too big of a hole to try and come back from,” Lebo said. “Our kids battled to the very end, our kids made it interesting.”
Those numbers left East Carolina to find itself down 34-21 at halftime. Marshall opened up the second half with its foot firmly pressed on the gassed pedal as it broke off a 16-2 run that ended with a Damier Pitts three-pointer to put his team up 50-23 at the 13:50 mark.
Pitts was a major thorn in the Pirates’ side as he scored a game-high 28 points to pace the Herd.
Just as it looked like ECU would be headed for one of its worst loses of the season, the Pirates applied an air-tight press that sucked the life out of Marshall and breathed energy into the 6, 741 fans in attendance.
That press, combined with some timely shots on offense, allowed the Pirates to go on a 25-5 run that cut Marshall’s lead to 55-48 after an Erin Straughn (10 points) three-pointer. A Young layup got ECU as close as 58-53 with 5:08 left in the game, but Pitts and Shaquille Johnson (14 points) teamed up to keep ECU from getting any closer.
The contest was a heated one as the Pirates, draped in yellow, clashed with the green-clad Herd to resemble NBA rivals Lakers and Celtics. The team trashed talked to each other just the same as Sherrod and Marshall’s DeAndre Kane had to be separated during the pregame warmups.
“It was intense before the jump ball, before they even threw the jump ball it was intense” Sherrod said. “We knew it was going to be an intense game.”