East Carolina was the cure.

Whatever ailed Marshall during a five-game losing streak wasn't a disease that playing the Pirates couldn't heal.

Talk about an antibiotic.

East Carolina's nickname should be "Penicillin" instead of Pirates.

Unfortunately for well-liked East Carolina coach Mack McCarthy, the "Penicillin" played more like Dr. Salk than Dr. J. That's why Marshall actually beat the Pirates by more points (51) than East Carolina scored (49).

"That's about as poorly prepared team as I've ever been responsible for," said McCarthy, after watching Marshall embarrass East Carolina, 100-49, before 5,603 fans at the Henderson Center Saturday night.

How bad were the Pirates?

Chad Wynn, a 6-foot-10 junior center, had his shot blocked by three different Marshall players during the first half. Wynn also committed three walking violations on post moves in the first half.

Then, there was East Carolina's horrendous shooting. The Pirates didn't score a field goal for a span of 14:04 during the first half, finishing 4-for-17 from the floor.

But as bad as East Carolina's shooting was, its ball-handling was even worse. At halftime, the Pirates had 13 turnovers and zero assists.

The sobering part is East Carolina actually played better during the first half than the second.

"I actually felt pretty good at halftime because I didn't think we could play any worse," said McCarthy. "I was wrong."

Was he ever.

By the time the game came to a merciful end, East Carolina was the most inept team I'd seen since Red Klotz and the Washington Generals.

But give Marshall credit. The Herd had something to do with East Carolina's horrible performance.

"East Carolina is a lot better team than they showed tonight," said senior Chris Lutz, after scoring 15 points. "It was just our night."

Yes, it was.

And it came at East Carolina's expense.

That's why it comes as no surprise that Marshall accomplished several firsts in the lopsided win.

Lutz threw down his first career dunk. "It kind of hurt, to be honest," he said with a wry grin about the slam that occurred just 1:45 into the game. "I wasn't loose. But it was cool."

Tirrell Baines connected on his first career 3-pointer. "It was just my time to shoot," said the junior.

Marshall scored 100 points for the first time since joining Conference USA in 2005. The last time the Herd had scored 100 points in a league game was against Akron in 2002 as a member of the Mid-American Conference.

That's how bad East Carolina was. But that's also how good Marshall was during a second half that included 65 percent field-goal shooting.

"Marshall played like a team that was mad," said McCarthy. "They played with that edge. Marshall had a lot of answers. When they're clicking on all cylinders they can beat you a lot of ways. They can beat you, 100-49.

"They made us look awfully bad."

The fact of the matter is Marshall made East Carolina look worse than any other opponent has all season. The Pirates' previous worst defeat was a 39-point loss to nationally-ranked Tennessee. East Carolina's previous worst loss in C-USA was to Memphis, 77-57.

"We haven't been finishing games," said Marshall coach Donnie Jones. "That's what we've been talking about. Tonight we finished."

Speaking of finished, that's what this game videotape is as far as McCarthy is concerned.

"You have to decide whether to watch it or burn it," he said. "I'm leaning toward burning it."

Somebody hand Mack a match.

Chuck Landon is a sports columnist for The Herald-Dispatch. Call him at 304-526-2827. E-mail him at clandon@herald-dispatch.com.

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