East Carolina @ Tulsa preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 17, 2019 ) Tulsa 77, East Carolina 73

Sterling Taplin and DaQuan Jeffries will play their final home game Sunday when Tulsa hosts East Carolina for an American Athletic Conference game. The duo will be among four players honored on Senior Night by the Golden Hurricane, who will look to continue their dominance over the Pirates.

Taplin has already achieved one milestone this season by surpassing 1,000 career points and the 6-1 guard from East Amherst, N.Y., is closing in on another, needing five assists for 400 in his career. Only three players in Tulsa history - Greg Harrington, Shaq Harrison and Ben Uzoh - have recorded 1,000 points and 400 assists and Taplin, who is fifth in school history in assists, has a chance to become the fourth. Jeffries, who leads the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game, saw his run of 10 straight games in double figures come to an end in Thursday's win over Tulane. An ugly season got worse for the Pirates on Wednesday as they suffered a 99-65 loss at the hands of No. 6 Houston and coach Joe Dooley was ejected for the first time in his 31-year career.

TV: 4 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT EAST CAROLINA (10-17, 3-12 American): Shawn Williams had been on a nice run with four straight games in double figures culminated by 27 points last week against Tulane but that came to an abrupt halt against Houston, which held him to four. The 6-1 guard from Little Rock, Ark., also put up 26 points in the first meeting with Tulsa, a 77-73 overtime loss for the Pirates on Feb. 17. Williams has enjoyed hot streaks before, including starting his season with seven straight games in double figures, but none could match his recent shooting exploits, which included going 24-of-46 from the field and 19-of-34 from 3-point land in the four games prior to the Houston contest.

ABOUT TULSA (17-12, 7-9): Martins Igbanu has been the Golden Hurricane's best player down the stretch as the team makes a run to try to get to .500 in the conference. The 6-8 junior has averaged 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds - both above his seasonal averages of 12.5 points and 5.6 boards - in the last six contests. Curran Scott joined Igbanu in scoring 19 points against Tulane and the junior has scored in double figures in back-to-back games for only the third time this season for Tulsa, which closes the regular season next week at Memphis.

TIP-INS

1. Tulsa is 252-75 in 21 seasons at the Donald W. Reynolds Center, including 28-5 in the last 33 games.

2. The Golden Hurricane have won four straight and 10 of the last 11 against the Pirates to push their series lead to 19-3, including 9-1 at home.

3. Taplin has made a school-record 110 3-point goals.

PREDICTION: Tulsa 78, East Carolina 70