East Carolina @ Tulane preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 25, 2020 ) Tulane 62, East Carolina 81

A once-promising season continues to roll downhill for Tulane, which had its losing streak reach six in a row with a 75-62 setback at Houston on Thursday. The Green Wave will try to snap the slide when they host the team directly above them in the standings in East Carolina on Saturday.

Each of the last six losses have come by double figures for Tulane, including an 81-62 setback at East Carolina, and it shot 36.5 percent from the floor in Thursday's setback. The Green Wave failed to reach 70 points in any of their last eight games after hitting the mark eight times in the first 14 contests. The Pirates are one game ahead of last-place Tulane in the American Athletic Conference standings but aren't playing much better of late and dropped their third straight game in a 68-64 home setback against Central Florida on Thursday. "Most college games you can play in your life is 160 if you play the national championship all four years," East Carolina coach Joe Dooley told reporters. "If you're not motivated to play 30 minutes of every game, then you shouldn't play. That is the way I feel about it. We played harder in practice yesterday than we played in the game today. We played hard for maybe six minutes of this game compared to our hour and a half practice yesterday which is really disappointing."

TIME: 6 p.m. ET. TV: ESPNU

ABOUT EAST CAROLINA (9-14, 3-7 AAC): The Pirates' lone win in the last seven games came over the Green Wave on Jan. 25, when forward Jayden Gardner bullied his way to 27 points on 8-of-11 shooting and 13 rebounds. Gardner, who leads the team in scoring (20.6) and rebounding (9.7) posted another double-double with 15 points and 12 boards on Thursday but was disappointed in his team's lack of consistency. "It was on and off," Gardner told reporters. "This game was a bunch of runs, they made a run early, we made a run, they made a run. At the end of the game we made our run a little bit too late. We couldn't keep up at the end and they ultimately came out with the W."

ABOUT TULANE (10-12, 2-8): The Green Wave have three scorers averaging in double figures in guards Teshaun Hightower (15.6 points), K.J. Lawson (13.7) and Christion Thompson (12.5), but Thompson had a string of five straight games scoring in double figures end when he was held to four points on 1-of-11 shooting on Thursday. Thompson recorded 14 points and 13 rebounds in the loss at East Carolina, but went 4-of-13 from the floor and is shooting 41.8 percent on the season. Hightower, Lawson and Thompson combined to go 3-of-15 from beyond the arc on Thursday and Tulane shoots 35.4 percent from 3-point range.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Green Wave freshman F Nobal Days scored in double figures for the second time this season with 10 points on Thursday.

2. Pirates freshman G Tristen Newton scored a season-high 23 points in Thursday's loss.

3. East Carolina earned an 85-81 victory at Tulane last season.

PREDICTION: Tulane 68, East Carolina 67