The ECU men’s basketball team erased a 21-point deficit in the second half and rallied to beat Buffalo, 73-70, on Sunday in a game played at Minges Coliseum.
Below are more details from ECU Sports Information. Postgame video and photo galleries are from Pirate Radio.
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Photo credit: Jordan Riley (ECU Sports Information)
Jordan Riley scored a career-high 31 points and added eight rebounds as East Carolina rallied from a 21-point deficit in the first half to defeat Buffalo, 73-70, inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
Tybo Bailey added 11 points and Giovanni Emejuru had his fifth double-double of the year (10 points, 10 rebounds) for the Pirates (4-7) who completed the largest comeback victory in program history since 1981 and improved to 8-1 in one possession games in the past two seasons. Luke Davis added six points and 11 boards in his first start of the season.
Daniel Freitag led Buffalo (9-2) with 31 points but was limited to just two points in the second half.
Caulker got the Pirates on the board first with a steal and score as ECU jumped out to an early 8-2 lead behind second chance opportunities generated from Luke Davis and Tybo Bailey as well as a turnaround jumper from Riley.
The Bulls took control of the game with a 12-0 run to turn an 11-5 deficit into a 17-11 lead with 9:39 to go in the first half. Riley drilled another mid-range jumper to snap the Pirates’ six-minute scoring drought, but Buffalo’s lead continued to increase after Freitag’s three-pointer at the 6:13 mark of the first half made it 28-13. Buffalo took its largest lead of 21 after a Freitag free throw with 1:47 to go in the half and the Pirates found themselves down 47-28 at the half.
Back-to-back turnovers from Buffalo and a fastbreak slam from Riley gave the Pirates a little bit of life coming out of the break and ECU made a small dent in Buffalo’s lead, trimming the score to 56-45 with 11:56 remaining.
Riley hit a jumper from the baseline to cut Buffalo’s lead to nine, but the Bulls pushed their lead back to double figures after Isaiah Mbeng’s steal and a chance for a fastbreak basket resulted in a turnover and a made three for Ryan Sabol.
ECU continued to battle after Riley’s slam capped a 7-0 run by the Pirates and cut Buffalo’s lead to just two. ECU held Buffalo without a point or field goal for the final three minutes and finally took the lead at 71-70 on Emejuru’s second chance basket with just a minute to go. Mbeng’s fourth steal led to two more free throws from Riley and the Pirates’ defense held serve on the game’s final possession to complete the comeback.
Up Next
East Carolina concludes its homestand on Wednesday when the Pirates take on Presbyterian at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.