AAC Conference Tournament: ECU 84 – Tulsa 79
In a true AAC battle that developed to be a game of runs between either side, it was ECU who outlasted Tulsa, using a 42-16 points in the paint advantage to hold off 29 points from Pj Haggerty and defeat the Golden Hurricane 84-79.
Ezra Ausar capitalized on the advantage he had in the paint, scoring a season high 29, and RJ Felton capitalized on the floor spacing, chipping in 19. The duo’s performance offensively was just enough to outlast another crazy game from the AAC player of the year in Haggerty, and if you ask head Coach Michael Schwartz it was the game-plan to dominate in the paint today.
“We knew we had to get to the paint. Whether it’s offensive rebounding, whether it’s driving the basketball or throwing the ball down low to Ezra, Brandon and RJ. Those 3 guys we have full confidence in, and a lot of teams will use a double team like Tulsa did tonight, and I thought our guys did a good job getting it out of there. We are not going to win a 3-point shooting battle Vs anybody, Tulsa hits 10 3’s or whatever they hit tonight… that’s never our game plan going in. We’re going to shoot it, but we knew we have to get to the paint, and I thought our guys did a great job of that,” Coach Schwartz said after the game.
ECU came out of the gates with a burst of energy, as they jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead behind baskets from 4 different players, and 2 3 pointers from Brandon Johnson and Rj Felton.
The comeback from Tulsa was quick, as they went on a 10-2 run shortly after that, and half of those came from AAC freshman of the year PJ Haggerty who scored a bucket off a steal and tied it up 12-12 with 13:22 to play.
The back-and-forth battle ensued from there, as the 2 sides traded a one possession lead through the middle part of the first half.
That was until ECU went on a 14-0 run starting with 5:48 to play and the pirates trailing 30-28. Bobby Pettiford scored 6 straight, Brandon Johnson chipped in a second chance dunk, Jaden Walker added a triple, and 2 successful trips to the line later, ECU was up 41-30 with 1:44 to play.
In what developed to be a half of runs, the Golden Hurricane were ready with a response and scored 6 straight and closed the half on a buzzer beater from PJ Haggerty, which made the score 41-36 going into the half.
Both sides grabbed a hold of momentum at different points, and ECU was able to grab a few big leads, but the difference at the half was only 5 and left the door open for a world of possibilities for both teams.
Haggerty had 11 for Tulsa, and Johnson had 10 for ECU but both sides were getting contributions from all around and were moving the ball well.
The Pj Haggerty show took off to start the second half as he scored the first 8 points of the half for the Golden Hurricane, Cobe Williams hit back-to-back triples and with 15:59 to play it was down to a 4-point ECU lead, 53-49. Haggerty was getting it in different ways to start the second half, and according to him that starts with simply reading the defense.
“Just reading the defense and seeing how they play, just looking for my teammates and just trying to get them good shots. When you get good shots for others, it opens up for me,” Haggerty said after the game.
Ezra Ausar, who finished with 28, and had 19 in the second half was getting anything he wanted down low for the Pirates as he responded that stretch from Tulsa with 6 of his own, and the lead was back to 10, 59-49 with 14:02 to play.
Tulsa wasn’t going down easy in this one, and backed by some more clutch buckets from Haggerty, a Jesiah Mcwright triple left us tied once again 64-64, with 10:03 to play.
A one possession lead was exchanged between either side over the next 7 minutes, but with 3:23 to play Tulsa finally broke through, and took their first lead of the game, 72-71, on a Carlous Williams triple with 3:23 to play.
The next few minutes were fingernail biting time for both teams, as a single digit lead was exchanged back and forth between both sides, Jared Garcia hit a triple with 2:09 to play and Tulsa was up 77-75.
RJ Felton, who finished with 19, scored 4 straight, quickly regained the lead for ECU and the Pirates never looked back.
Everyone’s favorite game, the free throw game, was played down the stretch but Tulsa was unable to break through, eventually falling to ECU 84-79.
“We went with an action, and we thought they might foul, and we tried to go to a tip play to get an opening and it was very close. It could go either way. I thought we were going to get it out of our hands, but they called the foul. We tried to play the long game with free throws, but give East Carolina credit for executing,” Schwartz said.
ECU has completed step 1 of the tall task of winning 4 games in 4 days, but the pirates aren’t focused on the bigger picture, instead they are focused on winning 1 game at a time.
“Do everything, we can to prepare for south Florida, that’s all we can do. That’s what’s in-front of us,” Coach Schwartz said.