Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
East Carolina
Men's Basketball Falls To East Carolina, 71-68
11/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov 15, 2001
RALEIGH, N.C. - The Northwestern men's basketball team was nearly buried by an avalanche of East Carolina three-pointers Thursday night, but instead it was a missed trey by the Wildcats that ultimately meant the difference.
A last-second three-point attempt by Tavaras Hardy (Joliet, Ill./Providence) went just long and fell off the rim, allowing ECU to escape with a 71-68 victory in the semifinal round of the Black Coaches Association Invitational Thursday night.
Northwestern (1-1) will now play San Jose State in the BCA Invitational third-place game Friday night at 5 p.m. Central. That contest will be broadcast live on NUSPORTS.com, but will be tape-delayed on flagship station WGN to start at 7 p.m. Central.
East Carolina (2-0), which plays in Conference-USA now, set a school record by draining 17 three-pointers on the night, 11 alone from Kenyatta Brown and Brandon Hawkins. The Pirates jacked up 36 attempts and had just eight field goals from inside the arc for the night, moving on to the championship game where they will face host North Carolina State.
After a first half that was evenly played -- there were 10 lead changes -- ECU took a 33-32 edge into the locker room. The story for both teams was the offensive display by the players in the respective No. 3 jerseys. Northwestern's No. 3, Winston Blake (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior), drained four treys and had 17 points by the break, just one more than ECU's No. 3, Brown.
NU held a 41-40 lead with 16 minutes left, when the Pirates appeared to put the game out of reach with a 20-4 run over a 10-minute span. by the time the six-minute mark hit, ECU had built a 60-45 advantage.
Northwestern showed its poise, though, clawing back into contention. Hardy scored a conventional three-point play, then Jitim Young (Chicago, Ill./Gordon Tech) followed with a newfangled trey. A Brown three was answered by a dunk from Hardy, then a three-pointer by freshman Vedran Vukusic (Split, Croatia/MIOC Math School) with two minutes remaining.
Jonathan Moore got free for a layup to put ECU up 65-56, but NU scored the game's next seven points, five of them by Young in the lane. Hawkins -- who hit five of his six treys for the game in the second half -- buried a pair of free throws with 1:08 to play, making the score 67-63, before yet another brilliant play by Young in the lane led to three more Wildcat points and cut the Pirates' lead to 67-66 with 55 ticks on the clock.
ECU held possession of the ball, finally putting up a shot with 26 seconds on the clock. That shot missed, but the rebound kicked out to a Pirate player. With the shot clock off, Hawkins inexplicably fired up a long-range three-point attempt that found nothing but the bottom of the net with 17 seconds to play.
Amazingly, Hawkins then fouled Blake at the other end as Blake attempted a trey attempt. He made two of the three foul shots, making the score 70-68. On the ensuing inbounds, NU immediately fouled Erroyl Bing, who hit one of two free throws to set up the final effort. After a series of timeouts, the Wildcats inbounded just inside of center court with 1.7 seconds left, but the best option was Hardy at the top of the key, and his shot went long and off the rim.
