Ezra Ausar scored 18 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds but East Carolina's chance at a major upset fell short as the Pirates lost to Houston 60-46 in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Championship on Friday afternoon at Dickies Arena.

RJ Felton added eight points and Brandon Johnson and Quentin Diboundje each scored seven for the Pirates (16-17, 6-12 AAC), who were seeking to advance to the AAC semifinals for the first time since joining the league with a major upset but were undone by missed scoring opportunities and turnovers down the stretch.

Marcus Sasser scored a game-high 30 points for the Cougars (30-2, 17-1 AAC), who were held to their lowest scoring output of the season on 28 percent shooting from the floor but shot 20-of-26 from the foul line to generate points.

The Pirates jumped out to an early 9-5 lead and made the Cougars sweat for the majority of the first half that saw seven lead changes and ECU control the glass with a 24-14 advantage. Houston would go into the half up 23-21 on a Terrance Arceneaux three and scored the first six points of the second half to widen the lead and force a quick Pirate timeout.

ECU would get no closer than nine the rest of the way as Houston forced eight turnovers and held ECU to 28 percent shooting from the floor to advance to the AAC semifinals.