University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles and Pirates Are Next
2/6/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Eagles and Pirates Are Next
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss and East Carolina take quite different early-week results into Saturday's game in Greenville, N.C.
The Pirates played Tuesday night at Memphis where they met much the same fate as did the Golden Eagles three days earlier, on Feb. 1 in the Pyramid. Southern Miss lost to the Tigers, 80-62, while ECU dropped a 73-49 decision.
But while East Carolina takes the Memphis loss into the weekend game, Southern Miss goes in fresh from an 82-80 double-overtime victory over UAB at Green Coliseum Tuesday night. In that game, Greg Johnson and Jasper Johnson had 21 and 20 points, respectively, and Charles Gaines added his 10th double-double of the season, with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
The Southern Miss and East Carolina series is still a brief one. The two teams have played only three games previous to Saturday's contest, and the Pirates have won all three. That includes last season, when ECU won, 61-58, in a game also played in Greenville.
In that game, the Pirates led 31-22 at the half and by as many as 11 points early in the second half, only to see the Eagles fight back to lead by as many as seven points. But, down 52-45 with 7:53 left, East Carolina proceeded to outscore Southern Miss 15-6 down the stretch to win. Brad Richardson led Southern Miss with 14 points, while Gabriel Mikulas paced the winners with 16. Only four Golden Eagle players who saw action in that game are on this year's roster, Mario Myles, Dante Stiggers, David Haywood and Clement Carter.
East Carolina, in only its second year of C-USA basketball, started the current season quickly, winning seven straight and 10 of its first 12 before dropping seven of its last eight games, for an 11-9 record.
The Pirates depend on balanced scoring to get the job done, with three players in double figures and a couple of others close. Derrick Wiley leads ECU at 12.6 points a game for a Pirate team that averages 67.7 points a game, seven-tenths of a point less than Southern Miss.
Gaines continues to pace Southern Miss, at 14.5 points a game. He also leads the team in rebounding, at 10.0 a game. He's also ranked 21st in the nation in rebounding, second in Conference USA.
Following the trip to Greenville, the Eagles move on to Fort Worth, Texas, for a Feb. 12 matchup with TCU, before returning home for a Dec. 15, game against DePaul.
