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A balance of power for Pirates
By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — A balanced scoring attack led by James Legan’s game-high 20 points and sophomore Darrius Morrow’s 15 points and 10 rebounds helped East Carolina get off to a 2-0 start on Sunday when it topped St. Andrews 94-58.
The Pirates shot a sizzling 52 percent from the floor and had four players score in double figures, with two more with nine as they easily disposed of the Div. II Knights (0-2).
Sam Hinnant broke the double-digit barrier for the second night in a row as he scored 14, while sophomore swingman Daquan Joyner netted a career-high 13.
“We made some progress between Friday night and (Sunday), mostly in just how we approached the game mentally,” ECU coach Mack McCarthy said. “I was really pleased with how receptive they were and how team orientated they were on both ends of the floor. We got a lot of things we got to do better, but they are clearly sharing the ball and clearly trying hard, and we clearly have a lot more offensive weapons than in the past.”
Sophomore Brock Young did most of the sharing as he dished out seven assists, and also scored nine points, while Hinnant was second on the team with five assists.
Sophomore center Chad Wynn followed up his 15 point effort in the season opener with a mediocre seven-point performance (3-8 from the floor), while pulling down only three boards in 14 minutes.
Wynn caught two fouls in the first half, and played sparingly throughout the second.
For the second straight night both Wynn and Morrow played together for a few minutes in the second half. McCarthy said he is comfortable playing both his bigs together if the matchups call for it.
“I think we can play them together some depending on the defensive matchups,” McCarthy said. “Tonight wasn’t and ideal situation because (St. Andrews’) four man was really active and basically a perimeter guy ... but there will be some nights where we will have to go big, big like that.”
For the second night in a row Jamar Abrams started at power forward and did a decent job on the glass. Abrams had five boards in 18 minutes to go along with seven points.
Abrams also had the highlight of the night when he threw down a nasty one-handed dunk over two Knights’ defenders.
Overall, team rebounding is still an issue as the Pirates managed to out-rebound St. Andrews by a slim 39-37 margin on Sunday.
McCarthy said the team needs to improve its effort on the glass.
“I was pretty unhappy at halftime, but we weren’t much better in the second half,” McCarthy said. “But some of that was lack of intensity down the stretch (when the game was out of reach), (the Knights) got four or five second shots in the last five minutes ... We got to be better at rebounding the basketball, but I thought we were better than we were the other night.”
Another area the Pirates need to improve on is team defense. Though they limited the Knights to 34 percent from the field, the Pirates must do a better job staying in front of their opponent and talking to each other.
“We still have to be just much better defensively,” McCarthy said. “We can put a group out there that communicate and plays pretty well together, but any kind of substitution causes us some issues. That’s not to say that the first group is a great group, but right now they are the first group because they do communicate better and stay in a stance and do some things better.
“All those guys coming off the bench can be great defenders. Chris Turner is long and athletic, Jontae (Sherrod) can really get after it. Darrius has a real good feel for it, Daquan is an active defender. All those guys that are getting minutes off the bench can be good defenders, but we got to do it as a team and just communicate better.”
The Pirates will get a chance to do that on Wednesday when they host Campbell at 7:30 p.m.
The Pirates shot a sizzling 52 percent from the floor and had four players score in double figures, with two more with nine as they easily disposed of the Div. II Knights (0-2).
Sam Hinnant broke the double-digit barrier for the second night in a row as he scored 14, while sophomore swingman Daquan Joyner netted a career-high 13.
“We made some progress between Friday night and (Sunday), mostly in just how we approached the game mentally,” ECU coach Mack McCarthy said. “I was really pleased with how receptive they were and how team orientated they were on both ends of the floor. We got a lot of things we got to do better, but they are clearly sharing the ball and clearly trying hard, and we clearly have a lot more offensive weapons than in the past.”
Sophomore Brock Young did most of the sharing as he dished out seven assists, and also scored nine points, while Hinnant was second on the team with five assists.
Sophomore center Chad Wynn followed up his 15 point effort in the season opener with a mediocre seven-point performance (3-8 from the floor), while pulling down only three boards in 14 minutes.
Wynn caught two fouls in the first half, and played sparingly throughout the second.
For the second straight night both Wynn and Morrow played together for a few minutes in the second half. McCarthy said he is comfortable playing both his bigs together if the matchups call for it.
“I think we can play them together some depending on the defensive matchups,” McCarthy said. “Tonight wasn’t and ideal situation because (St. Andrews’) four man was really active and basically a perimeter guy ... but there will be some nights where we will have to go big, big like that.”
For the second night in a row Jamar Abrams started at power forward and did a decent job on the glass. Abrams had five boards in 18 minutes to go along with seven points.
Abrams also had the highlight of the night when he threw down a nasty one-handed dunk over two Knights’ defenders.
Overall, team rebounding is still an issue as the Pirates managed to out-rebound St. Andrews by a slim 39-37 margin on Sunday.
McCarthy said the team needs to improve its effort on the glass.
“I was pretty unhappy at halftime, but we weren’t much better in the second half,” McCarthy said. “But some of that was lack of intensity down the stretch (when the game was out of reach), (the Knights) got four or five second shots in the last five minutes ... We got to be better at rebounding the basketball, but I thought we were better than we were the other night.”
Another area the Pirates need to improve on is team defense. Though they limited the Knights to 34 percent from the field, the Pirates must do a better job staying in front of their opponent and talking to each other.
“We still have to be just much better defensively,” McCarthy said. “We can put a group out there that communicate and plays pretty well together, but any kind of substitution causes us some issues. That’s not to say that the first group is a great group, but right now they are the first group because they do communicate better and stay in a stance and do some things better.
“All those guys coming off the bench can be great defenders. Chris Turner is long and athletic, Jontae (Sherrod) can really get after it. Darrius has a real good feel for it, Daquan is an active defender. All those guys that are getting minutes off the bench can be good defenders, but we got to do it as a team and just communicate better.”
The Pirates will get a chance to do that on Wednesday when they host Campbell at 7:30 p.m.
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| Injuries continue to stockpile for Pirates | Northside/PCS basketball tourney set to begin tonight |
