Cincy sends ECU to fifth straight loss


By Tony Castleberry
The Daily Reflector

Sunday, January 15, 2017

East Carolina defended Cincinnati about as well as it could, and better than most of the Bearcats’ opponents have this season, but it was not enough to stop the Pirates’ losing streak.

In coach Jeff Lebo’s final game before Monday’s hip surgery will sideline him indefinitely, ECU dropped its fifth consecutive decision, 55-46, to 22nd-ranked Cincy in Minges Coliseum. The offensive problems that have plagued the Pirates (9-10, 1-5 American Athletic Conference) during the losing skid did not go away despite ECU holding Cincinnati to 32.8 percent field goal shooting and 16.7 percent from 3-point range.

“I thought we battled awfully hard, executed, defensively, our game plan,” Lebo said. “(We) executed offensively against a good team, but just couldn’t put the ball in the basket again.”

Freshmen Elijah Hughes, who got his first collegiate start, and Jeremy Sheppard scored 18 and 13 points, respectively, for the Pirates, but another dreadful shooting day doomed ECU and wiped away any chance of the team sending Lebo into surgery and recovery with a victory. A 15-of-59 field goal shooting effort and making 4-of-23 from 3-point range left the Pirates at the start of a weeklong break with a setback that has become all too familiar for Minges fans.

ECU, which was missing leading scorer B.J. Tyson due to a knee injury, has made 25 of its 121 attempts from beyond the arc in AAC play, a deficiency highlighted by senior Caleb White’s struggles. White, who ranks sixth in all-time scoring at East Carolina, shot 0-of-7 from the field against Cincinnati and 0-of-4 from 3, leaving him 3-of-26 from distance in league games.

“My heart goes out to him,” Lebo said of White. “I wish I could give him something to make one (shot) go down for him. He’s such a good kid. ... He deserves better than that.”

Hughes and Sheppard combined to score all of ECU's points in the first half, which ended with Cincy leading 31-23. It was 21-21 after a Hughes free throw, but Troy Caupain, who had not attempted a shot all half, produced an 8-0 run by himself and Kyle Washington sank a pair of free throws with 21 seconds left to provide the 'Cats' halftime margin.

A Jacob Evans free throw with 7:55 left gave Cincinnati its biggest lead, 45-33, but Kentrell Barkley made a 3 with 2:05 left to pull the Pirates within eight, 52-44.

Sheppard missed a 3-point try with 1:32 on the clock that could have made it a five-point game, and two Evans free throws pushed the Bearcats’ lead back to 10. Hughes hit two at the stripe for his only points of the second half with 25 ticks remaining and a Jarron Cumberland free throw ended the scoring.

“We’re still in this little slump,” said Sheppard, who produced three spectacular one-on-one plays that drew oohs and aahs from the 4,597 in attendance. “We’re still trying to get into the flow. One of these games, our shot is going to come back and it’s going to be a beautiful feeling.”

Washington led the ‘Cats (15-2, 5-0) with 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds and Evans added 10 for Cincinnati, which also scored 55 points in an overtime win at Iowa State last month and did not get many kind words from its coach after Sunday’s result.

“It was just poor execution,” Mick Cronin said of his team’s offense. “We didn’t do much to make it hard on (ECU). I was really struggling to get any type of execution. Our rhythm the first half was throw one pass and shoot. Our rhythm in the second half was to never throw the ball inside, and that’s what we were supposed to do.”

Barkley just missed a double-double for the Pirates, adding a team-high 10 rebounds to his nine points on 2-of-10 field goal shooting, but finishing 4-of-4 at the free throw line. Andre Washington blocked five shots for the Pirates, tying Cincy’s Nysier Brooks to lead all players.

Contact Tony Castleberry at tcastleberry@reflector.com, 252-329-9591 and follow @tcastleberrygdr on Twitter.

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