Feb. 2, 2010

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Mack McCarthy Post-Game Press Conference  | Jamar Abrams Post-Game Comments 

GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Taylor Young scored 16 points and distributed six assists to lead UCF to a 67-56 win over East Carolina Tuesday night inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for UCF (11-11, 3-5 Conference USA), who defeated East Carolina for the 11th time in 12 meetings. The loss was the Pirates (7-15, 1-7) fourth straight at home and seventh overall since opening league play.

ECU junior Jamar Abrams scored a career-high 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-7 from behind the arc. Abrams dropped in 25 points against the Knights during their visit to Minges Coliseum a year ago.

Despite both teams committing turnovers at a rapid rate at the outset, ECU was able to create a six-point cushion in the opening nine minutes as UCF made just two of its first 12 field goal attempts, while the Pirates made six of their first 10.

Abrams put the Pirates ahead, 6-4, five minutes into the game. The Pirates held the lead for the next 10 minutes before Isaac Sosa hit back-to-back 3s to give the Knights a 22-20 lead with 3:28 left in the half.

ECU reclaimed the lead, 23-22, a minute later as Abrams threw down a thunderous dunk off an alley-oop pass from Brock Young. Abrams and Young combined to score 18 of the Pirates 23 first half points.

A.J. Tyler's bucket at the end of the half put the Knights up one at intermission, 24-23.

Sosa finished with 14 points, 12 of which came from behind the arc, and Tyler dropped in 10 points to go along with nine boards.

The two teams traded baskets at the start of the second half before A.J. Rompza's jumper ignited a 10-0 run to put the Knights up by nine, 37-28. Following Rompza's second straight basket, Tyler scored six consecutive points to cap the spurt.

Two more 3s from Sosa helped UCF extend its lead to 14 with just over 11 minutes to go.

Abrams brought the Pirates within 10 on a four-point play with 6:20 remaining. P.J. Gaynor answered on the other end with a 3 of his own to push the Knights' lead back to 13, 53-40. The Pirates never got closer than 11 the remainder of the game.

After shooting 34.5 percent in the first half, UCF connected on 52.3 percent of its shots in the second half and finished the game shooting 42.3 percent (22-of-52).

Conversely, ECU's shooting percentage dropped after halftime. The Pirates shot 36.7 percent during the second 20 minutes after shooting 41.7 percent in the opening half.

UCF took better advantage of ECU's turnovers in the second half, scoring eight points off seven Pirate miscues after scoring only 10 points off 13 turnovers in the first half. East Carolina committed 20 total turnovers.

The Pirates out-rebounded their foe by 12 (38-26), but were only able to get four points off offensive boards in the second half.