Jayden Gardner - Tulsa - 2019/2020

Jayden Gardner scored 12 points and pulled down 12 rebounds on Wednesday night in a 70-56 loss to Tulsa.

A slow start against the University of Tulsa (16-8, 8-3 AAC) on Wednesday torpedoed the East Carolina University (10-15, 4-8 AAC) men’s basketball team’s hopes of victory in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After falling behind 6-0 early following back-to-back three-pointers by the Golden Hurricane, the Pirates never recovered, eventually losing 70-56.

“They got off to a good start and I told our guys they’re going to be desperate, they just lost two in a row,” ECU head coach Joe Dooley said. “You got some guys that I think play with some desperation and stepped up and made some shots.”

ECU only managed to tie Tulsa for 108 seconds on Wednesday and trailed for the remainder of the game. Entering Wednesday, the Golden Hurricane’s defense was holding opponents to 64.8 points per game on 39.9% shooting. Both of those numbers ranked inside the top-100 nationally as those trends continued to shine through for the home squad.

Across the first six-plus minutes of Wednesday’s contest, ECU knocked down only one field goal, going 1-of-10. That poor shooting, which has plagued the Pirates for much of the season, allowed the Golden Hurricane to race out to an 18-5 advantage.

“I thought we settled in a little bit towards the latter part of the first half and got some stops,” Dooley said. “Probably of our first 10 shots, eight or nine of them were wide open, got to knock them down, especially on the road.”

In the early-going, Tulsa found little trouble putting the ball in the hole. At the under-12 minute media timeout, holding a 21-7 lead, Tulsa was shooting 58% from the field and held a plus-eight advantage on the boards.

A 7-0 ECU run toward the middle of the first half cut into the lead, chopping it to 28-16. At that point, Tulsa had already knocked down all five of their three-pointers for the evening while maintaining a shooting percentage north of 50%.

Getting to the rim for multiple high-percentage shots, Tulsa held a 12-4 scoring advantage in the paint at the half and a heftier 39-23 overall tally.

With only two points at the half, sophomore forward Jayden Gardner was little to no factor in the opening 20 minutes. Despite picking up his 1,000 career collegiate point, becoming the third fastest Pirate to reach that plateau in program history, Gardner went 0-of-4 from the field while grabbing four boards.

Garnering two big career milestones during Wednesday’s contest, one being in the point column and the other coming in the form of 500 career rebounds, Gardner finished with 12 points and 12 boards across 35 minutes.

Never really able to get Tulsa’s lead back under seven to eight points, the Pirates allowed the home team to shoot 40% in the second half and 43.8% for the game. After opening the game 5-of-8 from three-point range, the Golden Hurricane went 0-of-10 from long-range over the final 33 minutes of the game.

In spite of that, and the Pirates shooting 43.3% in the final 20 minutes, ECU was still outscored 32-16 in the paint while Tulsa outrebounded them by five (37-32). ECU also turned the ball over 17 times while amassing only 12 assists on 19 field goals.

“In the second half, I thought we came out with a lot better energy and cut it to eight and then we turned it over six of the next 13 times, which you can’t do on the road against a good team,” Dooley said.

Not a good combination, Tulsa senior forward Martins Igbanu led the Golden Hurricane’s effort with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Entering the contest, Igbanu had been averaging 24.3 points per game over his last four games.

Struggling with foul trouble for much of the night, both Gardner and junior guard Bitumba Baruti fouled out while freshman center/forward Charles Coleman finished with three personals.

Overall, the Pirates were whistled for 27 personal fouls while the Golden Hurricane racked up only 14 fouls. By himself, Igbanu shot 18 times from the charity stripe, making 12 to account for half his points on Wednesday. Additionally, that number was two more free throws than ECU shot as a team (11-of-16).

“When you’re shooting 18 free throws, he’s a beast,” Dooley said. “Got to the free throw line a lot, they doubled us from the free throw line. He’s a very good player.”

Seemingly with no answer for Igbanu down low, the Pirates were kept in the game on the back of junior guard J.J. Miles’ play.

Tying a career-high, Miles finished with 21 points, 13 of which came in the second half. With four three-pointers to his credit, Miles ended the night 8-of-16 from the field and knocked down multiple mid-range jump shots after not settling for long-range attempts.

“I think he’s starting to figure some things out,” Dooley said. “With junior college guys, it usually takes half a year. I think he’s starting to get confidence in a little bit of a pull-up game as you’ve seen.”

Despite scoring 33 points in the waning 20 minutes, the Pirates failed to overcome the early hole they had dug for themselves. As a result, ECU never led on Wednesday as it incurred its 15th loss of the 2019-2020 season.

The Pirates will be back in action on Sunday when they take on the University of Cincinnati (15-8, 8-3 AAC) in Greenville, North Carolina. Tip-off from Minges Coliseum is scheduled for noon.

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