ECU tries to rebound at Marshall

GREENVILLE — Memphis coach Josh Pastner had high praise for Miguel Paul, even after his team’s busy defense mostly neutralized the East Carolina point guard.

“He’s a dangerous guard,” Pastner said after the Tigers handed ECU a 70-59 loss Wednesday at Minges Coliseum, snapping a three-game Conference USA winning streak. “He can really run a team.”

Paul, a junior transfer from Missouri, will try to run the Pirates back in the right direction when they open a three-game road swing at Marshall today at 7 p.m. in Huntington, W.Va.

Paul scored a team-high 13 points and finished with eight assists against Memphis despite frequent double-teaming that made even bringing the ball up the floor a constant struggle.

The Pirates (12-11, 3-7 C-USA) trailed Wednesday by as many as 19 points with 5 minutes to play and suffered from poor shot selection down the stretch. They shot just 39 percent for the game after connecting on at least 48 percent in consecutive victories over Alabama-Birmingham, Southern Methodist and Rice.

Memphis used a ball-screen defense to force ECU’s big men to shoot from the elbow, a strategy that proved effective. Forwards Darrius Morrow and Maurice Kemp combined for 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting.

“You have to be able to make some shots,” Pirates coach Jeff Lebo said.

Marshall, which sits in a three-way tie for fifth in the 12-team league, has not shot the ball particularly well all season. The Thundering Herd (14-10, 5-5) are 11th in C-USA in field goal percentage, at 43 percent.

Sophomore guard DeAndre Kane leads Marshall, which has lost two straight, with 15.9 points per game. Damier Pitts, a senior guard from Charlotte, is averaging 13.6.

Paul, the league’s assists leader with 5.6 per game, is fifth in C-USA with 15.8 points per contest.

The Pirates visit Central Florida on Wednesday and Memphis next Saturday.

Paul said the team’s recent success had stemmed from being more patient on offense and using the shot clock to its advantage, something that simply didn’t work against Memphis.

“When you get to half court and it’s about 22 or 23 seconds on the shot clock to get in your offense, you’ve got to kind of make do,” he said.

Straughn out

Junior guard Erin Straughn did not make the trip to Marshall, an ECU spokesman confirmed late Friday.

Straughn, who is averaging 6.2 points and 1.4 assists per game, left early in the second half and did not return Wednesday when he took a hard elbow to the mouth from Memphis’ Joe Jackson.

ECU staffers wiped up a significant amount of blood in front of the team’s bench as Straughn was taken to the locker room.

NOTES: Marshall leads the series, which dates back to 1969, 11-5, including a 78-65 win in Greenville last February. ... The Pirates return home to face UAB on Feb. 25. ... ECU must win five of its final six games to finish with a .500 league record for a second straight season.