SMU guard Jeremiah Samarrippas attempts a layup during play against ECU in last year’s game. SMU will take on (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

The Mustangs will head to Greenville, N.C., on Wednesday to face the East Carolina Pirates.

The game will be a conference matchup between two struggling teams.

After dropping their last three games, SMU is in need of a win.

“Too many turnovers” was one of the first things SMU head coach Matt Doherty cited as a reason for SMU’s recent losses.

The Mustangs are averaging about 12 turnovers a game but have turned the ball over a total of 31 times in their last two.

This high amount of turnovers can spell out a loss against a team like Tulsa, who beat the Mustangs 66-60 on Saturday.

During the game Tulsa scored 22 of their 66 points by capitalizing off of Mustang turnovers.

“We’ve got to handle the ball better,” Head Coach Doherty said.

Jeremiah Samarrippas, the sophomore point guard for the team, struggled last game. Samarrippas, normally a great distributor, only had three assists compared to four turnovers. 

The 5-10 point guard did not have a good matchup on Saturday, as Tulsa played a tall lineup that seemed to overwhelm him at times.

Fortunately for Samarrippas and the Mustangs, the matchup against East Carolina looks much more favorable.

Despite winning their last game against UAB, East Carolina had lost six straight games before that. 

The Pirates sit at the bottom of the Conference USA standings with a conference record of 1-6. However, their overall record for the 2011-2012 season is a decent 10-10. 

East Carolina is led by junior guard Miguel Paul and senior forward Darrius Morrow.

Paul leads the team in assists, averaging 5.5 per game, and is the top scorer as well, averaging 16.4 points.

Morrow is tied for the team lead in rebounds with 6.2 a game, and is second in scoring with 14.1 per.

East Carolina’s home record this season is 7-5.

As for SMU, the Mustangs have an away record of 3-5, and a 10-11 overall record. SMU is led by senior forward Robert Nyakundi, averaging 15.5 points and 5.2 rebounds a game. Samarrippas has been instrumental for the team this season, averaging 4.2 assists and seven points a game.

However, the story of the season thus far for SMU is on the defensive side of the ball. The Mustang’s stingy defense has allowed the second fewest points of all 12 C-USA teams. 

East Carolina is fourth in C-USA in scoring, so this matchup should come down to who plays better between ECU’s offense and SMU’s defense.

During the 2010-2011 season, SMU defeated ECU 46-41 at Moody Coliseum.

The Mustangs were able to hold back ECU and kept them from scoring a field goal for the final 14 minutes of the game.

Wednesday night’s game marks the Mustangs and Pirates eighth meeting in school history.

SMU holds a 5-2 advantage over ECU, with the Pirates being unable to defeat the Mustangs for the past two seasons.

The game tips off at 6 p.m. on Feb. 1.

Live audio, stats and video can be accessed on smumustangs.com.