Men’s Basketball Drops Tight Contest at ECU, 66-65

Thursday, January 31

Greenville, N.C.

6 PM

Tulane University

4-16, 0-8

East Carolina

9-11, 2-6

Tulane

ECU

Men’s Basketball Drops Tight Contest at ECU, 66-65

Jan 31, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The Tulane men's basketball team held a four-point halftime lead, but could not hang on in the second half, falling 66-65 at East Carolina in American Athletic Conference action on Thursday night at Williams Arena in Minges Coliseum.

Caleb Daniels led four Tulane (4-16, 0-8 AAC) scorers in double-figures with 17 points, while Kevin Zhang tallied 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Jordan Cornish contributed 10 points, six rebounds and five assists, while Moses Wood chipped in 10 points and eight boards on 4-for-4 shooting off the bench.

ECU (9-11, 2-6 AAC) had four scorers reach double digits and was paced by Jayden Gardner's 15 points and nine rebounds. Seth Leday added 13 points as a reserve.

Trailing 62-60, with 19.2 seconds remaining and possession, head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr., used a full timeout to draw up a play, but Cornish turned the ball over with an offensive foul on a drive to his left.

Following a quick foul, Gardner made two free throws to put ECU ahead by four and despite a trey by Cornish as time expired, the Pirates held on for the 66-65 win.

Daniels converted a 3-point play with 5:29 remaining to put the Wave back on top, 54-53.

Despite having no tie scores and just three lead changes in the first 20 minutes of the game, the second half had four ties and three lead changes in the first nine minutes of action.

Knotted at 44, the Pirates knocked down a pair of 3s in just 36 seconds down to the 9:55 mark to build a six-point edge and force Dunleavy to use a timeout.

ECU used a 6-0 run down to the 15-minute mark of the second half to reclaim the lead, 39-37, on a Gardner layup, but Samir Sehic punched right back with a trey on the next possession to put the Green Wave back on top by one.

Tulane shot 40 percent overall from the field and owned an impressive 25-11 rebounding advantage while holding the lead for 18:03 of the 20 minutes in the first half to take a 33-29 edge on the scoreboard into the locker room at halftime.

Zhang scored eight of the first 10 and 10 of Tulane's first 16 points to help build an early three-point lead just under eight minutes into the action.

Tulane makes a quick turnaround to host Temple on Saturday, February 2 at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. (CST) and the game will be broadcast on the WatchESPN app.

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