Greenville, N.C. --- East Carolina scored the first 12 points of the second half to overcome a five-point halftime deficit and defeat Saint Louis, 60-53, in Conference USA men's basketball action here Wednesday night. The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for the Pirates, who picked up their first C-USA victory of the season.

Sophomore Mike Cook led ECU (6-13, 1-6 C-USA) with 15 points and handed out a game-high five assists. Despite being limited to eight minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, junior Corey Rouse recorded his seventh double-double of the year; scoring 13 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Freshman Josh King came off the bench to give the Pirates a tremendous lift, scoring 11 points, on 3-of-6 shooting from behind the three-point line.

ECU scored the game's first basket, but then Saint Louis (5-13, 3-3 C-USA) scored 10 of the next 12 points and led the rest of the first half, leading by as many as nine with just over three minutes remaining before intermission.

Consecutive baskets by Rouse to start the second half pulled ECU within a point, then senior Moussa Badiane gave the Pirates the lead for good on a lay up, 61 seconds into the half. East Carolina held its largest lead at the 11:56 mark, 45-37, and never let the Billikens climb within more than four points. Badinae finished the game with eight points and blocked three shots to move within one of the Conference USA career blocks record.

After allowing Saint Louis to shoot over 56 percent from the field in the first half, ECU held the Billikens to just 23.1 percent shooting (6-of-26) after halftime. Izik Ohanon led the Billikens with a game-high 20 points, scoring 10 points in each half. Senior Reggie Bryant was the only other Billiken to reach double figures with 15 points.

East Carolina returns to action Saturday against instate rival Charlotte. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. in Greenville.

East Caolina Head Coach Bill Herrion
On the crowd
"First of all I just want to say thank you to the fans, what a great crowd. Especially on a Wednesday night. With all of our struggles it was great to see the crowd support this team. "

On second half
"At halftime I told the team that this game is not about offense, if we want to win the basketball game we have got to stop them on defense. The first five minutes of the second half we really clamped down and played defense, I think they only had about four points in the first 11 or 12 minutes of the second half."

"This win is just a great boost for our basketball team, it just feels good to win."

On defense
"That was the best second half of defense that we have played in a while. This Saint Louis team is not very easy to defend and I thought that we won this game tonight with our defense in the second half."

On the win
"We have played as difficult of a schedule as your going to find in this league and it is not going to get any easier on Saturday against Charlotte. I think that there are games on our schedule that we can win if we play with this type of intensity, energy, and attitude. We have played this way many times this year, the problem is we just don't play that way for 40 minutes every game. Tonight is one of the few times that we have been able to close a team out. We just needed this win to keep our spirits up and to keep them believing in themselves."

Saint Louis Head Coach Brad Soderburg
"I am anxious to get my hands on the tape because I don't have all the specifics, but what I recall they got a ton of offensive rebounds in the second half and they split our defense like we were standing still."

"We credit East Carolina on the energy they had, dominating the boards and turning it in to second chance points all night long, but specically the second half"

"At the first media timeout I told our guys that they are getting every lose ball, they are getting every hustle play and that disapoints me."

We had a good defensive effort the second half and we took care of the ball in the first half and throughout the game but we missed a lot of open shots in the second half but I can live with that, but what I can't live with is getting out hustled to the glass."

"This crowd deserves a good team, they are really electric and I was very impressed. This is truly a home court advantage for East Carolina."

Postgame Notes