East Carolina @ Wichita St. preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 6, 2019 ) Wichita St. 65, East Carolina 49

Wichita State won for the seventh time in nine games last time out to become the first American Athletic Conference team in history to reach .500 after starting the season 1-6 as it posted a 67-55 victory over SMU. The Shockers will play in front of their home fans for the final time this season when they host East Carolina on Tuesday.

The Shockers' late-season surge continues despite leading scorer Markis McDuffie (18.1 points) enduring a shooting slump that saw the senior go 4-for-17 on Sunday – although he scored a game-high 15 points – and connect on just 29.1 percent of his shots (21-for-72) over his last five contests. One game after netting a team-high 20 points and hitting a buzzer-beating winning shot, senior Samajae Haynes-Jones had his lowest-scoring performance of conference play in Sunday’s contest as he recorded five points on 2-of-10 shooting. ECU guard Isaac Fleming nearly became the 25th player in the country this season to register a triple-double as the senior posted team highs of 20 points and 10 assists while grabbing nine rebounds, but it wasn’t enough for the Pirates on Sunday as they lost 91-78 to Tulsa – their eighth defeat in nine games. The Pirates’ league-worst field-goal percentage defense (44.9 percent) took a major hit in their two losses last week as they allowed No. 12 Houston to shoot an opponent season-high 60.3 percent (35-for-58) in a 99-65 setback on Wednesday and followed up by allowing the Golden Hurricane to shoot 59.3 percent (32-for-54).

TV: 9 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network

ABOUT EAST CAROLINA (10-18, 3-13 American): Leading scorer Jayden Gardner (16.9 points) recorded his 10th double-double of the season against Tulsa as the freshman finished with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Shawn Williams scored 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc on Sunday and has hit at least five 3-pointers in three of his last four games, including a career-high eight versus Tulsa on Feb. 17. The Pirates rank 11th out of 12 conference teams in scoring offense (68 points per game) and scoring margin (minus-6), and are last in 3-point percentage (28.1) and assists (12.4).

ABOUT WICHITA STATE (15-13, 8-8): Jamarius Burton was named the conference’s Freshman of the Week as he averaged 11.5 points, five assists and one turnover in the Shockers’ wins over SMU and Connecticut. Wichita State shot 53.3 percent in the first half on Sunday and secured the win despite shooting 27.3 percent after halftime – thanks in part to its defense, which held SMU to 6.7 percent (1-for-15) from 3-point range. Freshman Dexter Dennis went 4-for-4 overall and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc on his way to 10 first-half points on Sunday but missed four 3-pointers and connected on 1-of-6 in the second half.

TIP-INS

1. Burton has a 4.83-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio over his last four games (29 assists, six turnovers).

2. This will be East Carolina’s first visit to Wichita State, which posted a 65-49 victory in the initial meeting between the programs on Feb. 6.

3. Dennis has reached double digits in points in four of his last five games after achieving the feat four times in his first 23 career contests.

PREDICTION: Wichita State 90, ECU 74