After the first half in their Conference USA game against East Carolina, The University of Memphis Tigers committed more turnovers and trailed in rebounds, field goal percentage, assists and blocks. Most importantly they trailed in points 33-28.
Thank goodness -- and John Calipari -- for halftime adjustments.After putting the clamps on the Pirates early in the second and plenty of free throws down the stretch, the Tigers (13-9 overall, 6-2 in conference play) prevailed over ECU (7-14, 2-7) by a final of 72-66.
"It's hard to charge the mountain everyday," said head coach John Calipari. "I didn't get on them at halftime that bad. I said 'If you want to win the game you're going to hustle after balls and rebounds. If you don't want to win the game then play how you're playing.'"
The Tigers never had a lead in the first half as ECU jumped ahead early in the game by a score of 12-4. They rode the hot hands of Tom Hammonds and Mike Cook early, as the two scored 9 of the 12. It seemed the Tigers were in for another tough one.
"All my shots wouldn't fall, and it was just one of those nights," said senior forward Duane Erwin, who hit one shot out of seven. "I wasn't worrying about it. I just knew I had to pick it up on defense, block shots and do all the little stuff."
Erwin may have been doing the little stuff, but his numbers were anything but minuscule as he finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes.
"Some nights Rodney (Carney) doesn't hit shots and he has to pick it up in other places to get himself feeling good," said Erwin.Wednesday night wasn't one of those nights for Carney.
Shooting 7 -13 from the field, Carney led all scorers with 19 points, including 4-9 from three-point range.
His third three-pointer neither he nor Tiger fans will ever forget. Needing 13 points entering the game to score 1,000 for his career, Carney hit a corner three-pointer with a little over 11 minutes in the game to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
But more importantly, the monumental shot gave the Tigers a six-point lead.
"I really wanted to win tonight. That (milestone) was in the back of my mind," Carney said. "There are a lot of great players that are in there (with 1,000 points). I'm happy to make it to that mark as a junior."
Carney's history-making night and shooting kept the Pirates away from the lead.
ECU came within 4 points only twice in the last 17 minutes.The Tigers will try to charge their next mountain Sat. at Houston (12-9, 3-4).
