By KEITH PARSONS
AP Sports Writer

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) --- Corey Rouse had 21 points and 13 rebounds and Mike Cook added 19 points, leading East Carolina past Southern Mississippi 77-66 Wednesday night in the Pirates' first game since coach Bill Herrion was told he won't be back next season.

Athletic director Terry Holland and senior associate AD Nick Floyd asked Herrion to step down during a meeting Tuesday morning, and Herrion turned down their offer of a job raising money for the athletic department.

Moussa Badiane finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks and two steals for East Carolina (9-17, 4-10 Conference USA), which won for the second time in three games.

Michael Ford scored 16 of his 22 points in the first half, but couldn't stop the Eagles (10-16, 1-13) from losing their seventh straight. Jarekus Singleton had 16.

Herrion strolled to the court with about a minute left in pre-game warmups, and his appearance was greeted warmly by the fans. He acknowledged their applause with a wave, then went down to welcome Southern Miss coach Larry Eustachy.

The conversation lasted about a minute and actually ran into the beginning of the player introductions. Herrion did most of the talking, perhaps explaining what had happened to him in the previous 36 hours.

Later, when the cheerleaders were trying to orchestrate a chant of ''Purple'' and ''Gold'' during a timeout, the crowd instead used ''Bill'' and ''Herrion.'' The coach obviously is loved by the students, who fill most of the lower level at Minges Coliseum for nearly every game and stand throughout.

Herrion certainly will leave his successor with plenty of talent, assuming everyone stays. The Pirates have only one senior on the roster in Badiane, and four freshmen figure prominently in the rotation.

And with changes in Conference USA in 2005-06 _ current powers Louisville, Cincinnati, Charlotte and DePaul, among others, are leaving for other conferences _ the new coach should have a chance to win. That hasn't happened often for East Carolina, which reached the NCAA tournament for the only time in 1993.

The Pirates broke from a tie at 51 with three consecutive 3-pointers by Japhet McNeil, Tom Hammonds and Cook, then Cook provided the exclamation point with another one from about 30 feet as the shot clock wound down.

That made it 74-62 in the final two minutes, and East Carolina cruised from there.

East Caolina Head Coach Bill Herrion
On the victory
"This was a great win for our kids. It has been a tough couple of days emotionally, just trying to keep things under control. The biggest concern that I had as a basketball coach was whether or not these kids would continue to keep playing. We talked about it at practice the other day and all of the kids said that nothing would change."

On C-USA re-alignment
"We have been playing really good basketball for the past four weeks, we are 4-4 in our last eight games. The way I look at it is as tough as this league is just look at the schedule for next year. Next year when the league gets re-aligned there are a lot of teams that are on our playing field. We went to Memphis we were five at the half and end up losing by six and they will probably be the top team in this league next year. We played a great game at UAB and get a win against Southern Miss tonight. I think we have beaten Southern Miss four times since we have been in this league and I think that is who we can play against."

On early lead
"Give the kids credit. It was a tough night and I didn't know what was going to happen. We were either going to play great early or we weren't; thank goodness we played great early and we got a little bit of a lead."

On C-USA Tournament
"Our goal is to get to the Conference USA Tournament. That is our goal and I think tonight was a big step towards achieving that goal. We are not in yet and we don't want to back door our way in we want to earn our spot the right way and that is by winning. Tonight was step one and we are going to have a challenge Saturday night against Houston. They are a much improved basketball team."

On his future
"I am a basketball coach. I don't want to do any other job, I don't want to work in any other department, I want to coach basketball."