Memphis Cruises Past ECU 83-53
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Memphis took a fifteen point lead into halftime and never looked back in a 83-53 bombardment of East Carolina Sunday afternoon for Senior Day in Minges Coliseum.
Avery Woodson led the way for Memphis with 20 points to go along with 17 from Shaq Goodwin, 14 from Dedric Lawson and 13 points from Trahson Burrell. B.J. Tyson led ECU with 12 points while Michel Nzege and Caleb White contributed with 11 and 10 points respectively.
“That was a disappointing end to our home season especially for our seniors. Give Memphis credit, I thought they were terrific tonight. We helped them in a lot of areas giving them the ball as much as we did. With twenty turnovers, thirty-two points off turnovers you’re not going to beat anybody with that,” Jeff Lebo said, “And that’s the area where we’ve been good. Our turnovers have been good, our decision making and passes have been good and we did none of that today. It was puzzling to say the least. We couldn’t even dribble. It was the oddest thing I’ve seen in a long time. We were losing the ball bringing it up the floor and it was a puzzling game for us."
A visibly disappointed Prince Williams and Mike Zangari talked after the game about what was another tough outing for ECU who falls to 12-19 with the loss and 4-14 in AAC play where they will take on USF in the first round of next weeks' conference tournament.
“We’ve just got to wash it away and bounce back the best way we can,” Prince Williams said after scoring just seven points to go along with four assists his final home game in an ECU uniform.
ECU had a chance to trim the Memphis lead to nine early in the second half but a missed three-pointer from Mike Zangari led to two quick treys for the Tigers. From there Memphis was off to the races.
“I noticed that too. They just played well today, we made a lot of mistakes today and capitalized on every one of them,” Zangari said, “They came down and hit and I said man I could have cut it down there. They were just on top of things today and hat off to them. We thought we were ready to play today but sometimes that’s just the way it goes."
“I knew he wouldn’t be out there with us so I wanted to do something special for him,” said senior post man Mike Zangari who wore Marshall Guilmette’s number 41 for senior day, "We looked at a couple of options that that was the most logical so I was happy to do that for him and I know he was happy that I did it."
Two Treshon Burrell treys and a Shaq Goodwin free throw found Memphis with an early 7-2 lead.
ECU took their first lead of there game at the 15:10 mark 9-7 on a Caleb White three pointer.
But a pair of Avery Woodson baskets and a Shaq Goodwin bucket in the paint put Memphis up by five at the six minute mark of the first half.
Lawson and Woodson each scored twice more for Memphis(17-14/8-10 AAC) to extend the lead to thirteen at 35-22 at the three minute mark. Shaq Goodwin scored twice in the final minute of the half as the Tigers took a 41-26 halftime lead.
Goodwin and Woodson had eleven points and Lawson scored ten points in the first twenty minutes. Caleb White led ECU with eight points at intermission.
The Pirates went 2 of 13 from the arc in the first half and just 35.7 percent from the floor overall to 56.7 percent for Memphis who went 6 of 9 from the arc.
ECU cut the lead to eleven before two Woodson treys off of Pirate turnovers and a basket from Ricky Terrant, Jr. pushed the Tigers’ lead to eighteen just three minutes into the second half at 51-32.
Things didn’t get any better for cold shooting ECU as the Memphis lead ballooned to 59-36 on a Dedric Lawson shot in the paint.
Two more Lawson buckets along with baskets from Burrell and Nick Marshall gave Memphis a thirty point lead where the Tigers would coast the rest of the way.
ECU hit just 4 of 25 from three-point range and 38.2 percent overall. They gave up 32 points off of 22 turnovers despite out rebounding Memphis by three who hit 54 percent from the floor.
