Pirates fall at FAU in regular deason finale, face UTSA in AAC tourney

by | Mar 9, 2025

The East Carolina men’s basketball team had a rough finish to the regular season with an 81-53 loss at Florida Atlantic on the road Sunday.

The Pirates fell to 18-13 overall, 10-8 in the AAC. They enter the conference tournament as the No. 6 seed and will face No. 11 seed UTSA on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

Click here for the full AAC bracket.

Below is a full report from ECU Sports Information.

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Photo credit: ECU Pirates (ECU Sports Information photo)

By ECUPirates.com

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Jordan Riley scored 18 points but East Carolina fell to Florida Atlantic, 81-53, in the regular season finale for both teams at Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena on Sunday afternoon.

RJ Felton was the only other player in double figures for the Pirates (18-13, 10-8 AAC) with 11 points on 3-of-15 shooting.

KyKy Tandy led Florida Atlantic (17-14, 10-8 AAC) with 19 points on five made threes.

It was a rough start to the game for both teams in terms of shooting the ball, as the Pirates and Owls combined to go 7-of-26 heading into the under-12 media timeout with the score all knotted up at nine.

The Owls’ offense would start to pick up with a 9-2 run to go in front 18-11 and forced a Pirates’ timeout at the 9:33 mark. Back-to-back threes from FAU’s KyKy Tandy extended the Owls’ lead to double figures and the barrage of first-half threes from the Owls continued as FAU took its biggest lead of the half at 39-19 with just under three minutes to go.

Tandy hit another three early in the second half to balloon the Owls’ lead to 24 and the Pirates were never able to get any closer as ECU’s three-game winning streak was snapped.

Game Notes

  • The Pirates used the same starting five for the seventh straight game in Hayes, Felton, Riley, LaBeaux and Walker.
  • ECU tied a season-high with eight threes allowed in the first half.
  • ECU fell to 4-9 on the year when being outrebounded and 7-10 when making less threes than the opoosition.
  • Felton has made a field goal in 93 straight games.
Up Next
East Carolina will be the sixth seed in the upcoming American Athletic Conference Championship next week as the Pirates will face the 11th seed, UTSA, in the second round on Thursday, March 13 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

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