TU Men Fall To East Carolina

East Carolina answered Tulsa's second-half run and outscored the Hurricane 14-7 in the final five minutes to claim a 72-63 victory on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Senior Scottie Haralson led the Tulsa attack with 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists in 36 minutes. The Pirates were led by Maurice Kemp's 23 points.

Tulsa (14-12, 6-6) came out of halftime and scored the first four points and tied the score at 38-38 with just 2:03 gone in the second half. TU took its first lead since early in the game at the 13:23 mark as Pat Swilling's 3-pointer put the Hurricane ahead 43-42. After exchanging the lead four times, Shaquille Harrison's layup with 10:35 remaining put Tulsa ahead 49-46, equaling TU's biggest lead since a 3-0 start. Swilling's fast-break layup made the score 51-46 with 10:04 on the game clock.
 
Tulsa made it 56-51 at the 6:41 mark on a Haralson jumper, but then the Pirates scored the next 10 points on a free throw and three treys to take a five-point lead at 61-56 with 3:48 remaining in the contest. The Hurricane scored just seven points over the final 6.5 minutes, while converting just two of nine free throws during that stretch, including missing seven straight from the line.  
 
East Carolina made 7-of-7 free throws over the final 1:50 to hold off the Hurricane and capture its' first win in the series since January 2006.

Tulsa goes on the road this Saturday to face the UCF Knights in Orlando, Florida for a 3:00 p.m.  tipoff.