The ECU men’s basketball team held on down the stretch and came away with a 71–70 victory on Thursday against Elizabeth City State.
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Below are more details from ECU Sports Information.
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Photo credit: (ECU Sports Information)
By ECU Sports Information
Giovanni Emejuru had a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds as East Carolina held off Elizabeth City State, 71-70, inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on Thursday night.
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Tybo Bailey had a career night with 19 points for the Pirates (2-1), who were shorthanded on the night without leading scorer Jordan Riley.
Trevor Smith led Elizabeth City State with 20 points.
The Pirates struck first in the game’s opening seconds on a layup from Corey Caulker, but the Vikings led most of the first four minutes until Vito Perkovic’s layup gave ECU a 10-9 edge going into the first media timeout.
ECU went up by as much as seven after Isaiah Mbeng’s layup made it 18-11 with 12:06 left but ECSU outscored the Pirates 15-10 over an eight-minute stretch to knot the contest at 28 with just over three minutes remaining in the half and the Vikings retook the lead after two free throws from Smith.
Baskets from Mbeng and Emejuru gave ECU enough of a cushion to take a 36-35 lead into halftime.
ECSU continued to hang around in the second half due in large part to 14 second half turnovers from the Pirates and every time ECU went up by five or six, the Vikings responded to pull back within a possession.
After ECSU took a 55-53 lead with just over 10 minutes to play, ECU answered with a 6-0 run capped by a dunk from Emejuru to go in front 59-55 at the 8:37 mark. Emejuru’s second-chance dunk with 1:31 remaining gave the Pirates a 71-65 lead but ECSU came back with a three-pointer and a pullup jumper from Jaquantae Harris made it a one-point game with 47 seconds to go.
Coming out of a timeout, the Pirates’ 20th turnover of the night gave ECSU one last chance to win the game, but ECU’s defenders swarmed the driving layup attempt to force a turnover and end the game.
Up Next
East Carolina hits the road to face UNCW on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on FloCollege.