Tulsa 67, East Carolina 49

Wednesday, January 10th 2007, 9:40 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Rod Earls scored 25 points, hitting 7-of-9 3-point attempts, as Tulsa pulled away from East Carolina in the second half for a 67-49 victory on Wednesday in the Conference USA opener for both basketball teams.

Tulsa (11-3), which has won all 11 of its home games this season, also received 12 points and eight assists from point guard Brett McDade and 10 points from freshman Ben Uzoh.

Darrell Jenkins scored 15 points and fellow guard Jeremy Ingram added nine to lead East Carolina (5-9).

The Pirates' duo was hot through the first 25 minutes, as East Carolina shot 60 percent and trailed 33-32 at the half. East Carolina then made four of its first five shots in the second half.

The score was 42-42 until a short jumper by Tulsa's Charles Ramsdell -- his first basket in seven attempts -- started a 12-2 run that gave the Golden Hurricane command at 54-44 with seven minutes left.

A 3-point play on a twisting drive by McDade gave Tulsa a 57-48 lead with 5:14 left. Earls blew the game open with consecutive 3-pointers from the corner that made it 65-48 with 2:10 to go.

East Carolina played a packed-in zone the entire first half. Tulsa responded by attempting 20 of its 28 first-half shots from behind the 3-point line.

Tulsa finished 11-of-29 on 3-pointers for 37.9 percent, slightly better than its overall field-goal percentage of 37 percent. The Golden Hurricane also forced 20 turnovers and outrebounded the Pirates 34-30.

After threatening to become the first team to shoot over 50 percent against Tulsa since Doug Wojcik became the Golden Hurricane's head coach last season, the Pirates finished at 45.9 percent, making just 5-of-17 in the second half (29 percent).

Earls, a junior guard who sat out last season with a broken foot, leads Tulsa with a scoring average of just over 12 points per game, but has scored 47 points in the past two games.