No. 21 Houston looks to extend streak vs ECU

No. 21 Houston (16-4, 6-1) vs. East Carolina (9-11, 3-4)

Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, Greenville, North Carolina; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 21 Houston looks for its ninth straight win in the head-to-head series over East Carolina. Houston has won by an average of 26 points in its last eight wins over the Pirates. East Carolina’s last win in the series came on Jan. 14, 2015, a 66-61 win.

FAB FRESHMEN: East Carolina’s Jayden Gardner, Tristen Newton and Brandon Suggs have combined to account for 56 percent of the team’s scoring this season and have scored 60 percent of all Pirates points over the last five games.

AAC ADVANCEMENT: The Cougars have allowed just 60.6 points per game to American Athletic Conference opponents thus far. That’s an improvement from the 65.5 per game they gave up against non-conference foes.

CREATING OFFENSE: DeJon Jarreau has been directly responsible for 46 percent of all Houston field goals over the last three games. The senior guard has nine field goals and 20 assists in those games.

SLIPPING AT 75: East Carolina is 0-7 this year when it allows 75 points or more and 9-4 when holding opponents to fewer than 75.

ASSIST RATIOS: The Pirates have recently used assists to create buckets more often than the Cougars. East Carolina has an assist on 53 of 72 field goals (73.6 percent) across its previous three contests while Houston has assists on 36 of 63 field goals (57.1 percent) during its past three games.

DID YOU KNOW: Houston is ranked first among Division I teams with an offensive rebound percentage of 39.5 percent. The Cougars have averaged 14.6 offensive boards per game.