Tulsa
East Carolina
Tulsa Handles Pirates in C-USA First Round 65-50
3/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2007
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Memphis, Tenn. - Calvin Walls led Tulsa with a career-high 15 points at the Golden Hurricane defeated East Carolina, 65-50, on Wednesday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament.
Tulsa won its 20th game for the 17th season in school history, and the first time since posting a 23-10 record in 2002-03. The Hurricane improved to 20-10 overall, while East Carolina closed out the season with a 6-24 record.
Tulsa plays fourth-seed Tulane on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. The game can be seen live on CSTV.
Rod Earls added 13 points, while Jamel McLean had a team-high 10 rebounds. Tulsa shot 49-percent for the game from the field, and 47-percent from three-point range. ECU's Courtney Captain led the Pirates with a game-high 27 points on 10-of-18 from the field.
"We knew it would be a hard fought game," said Tulsa Head Coach Doug Wojcik. "I've said all week that we had probably the toughest 18-point win at our place against them earlier this year, so we knew that was going to happen. I thought we took advantage of our depth. We rebounded the ball well, and of course our shooting percentage was good."
Tulsa held the Pirates to .328 shooting from the field and .278 from three-point range. Tulsa's 13-point halftime lead was cut to eight points with 12:56 left, but the Hurricane got a jumper from Walls and three-pointers from Ben Uzoh and Earls to go ahead 16 points.
The Hurricane had its biggest lead of the game at 61-44 with 5:04 left on the clock and kept its double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
To start the game East Carolina jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but when Mark Hill's jumper at the 14:53 mark put the Hurricane ahead 6-4, Tulsa would never trail again. The Hurricane took its first double-digit lead at 23-13 on another Hill jumper with 5:14 left in the first half.
Tulsa pushed its biggest first-half lead to 16 points at the 3:10 mark on a three-pointer by Ray Reese, and held on for a 13-point halftime lead at 34-21. After a poor shooting start to the game, Tulsa finished the first half shooting 52-percent from the field, while out-rebounding the Pirates by 11.
