The ECU men’s basketball team rallied in the second half but fell at Temple, 75-67, on Wednesday.
Below are more details from ECU Sports Information.
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Photo credit: (ECU Sports Information)
PHILADELPHIA – Jordan Riley scored a game-high 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting but East Carolina’s second-half comeback fell short against Temple, 75-67, at The Liacouras Center on Wednesday night.
Giovanni Emejuru added 19 points and nine rebounds while Eli DeLaurier scored a career-high 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting for the Pirates (5-10, 0-2 American) who dropped their third straight after trailing by as much as 18 points in the second half.
Gavin Griffiths led Temple (11-5, 3-0 American) to their seventh straight win with 24 points.
Temple jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the game’s first minute but the Pirates settled in, hitting their first three shots to cut Temple’s lead to 7-6 at the 17:40 mark of the first half. The Owls stretched their lead to seven on Babatunde Durodola’s layup with 15:59 remaining but a Corey Caulker three and two free throws from Tybo Bailey brought ECU back within a possession at 13-11.
Scoring droughts of five and four minutes from the Pirates allowed Temple to gain some distance and 11 of Temple’s 36 first half points were off of eight Pirate turnovers as East Carolina trailed 36-21 going into the break.
East Carolina came out of the half with a 6-0 spurt to cut Temple’s lead to 10 but Temple responded with an 8-2 run that pushed its lead to 16 with 15 minutes to go in the game. After Temple took its largest lead of the game at 18, the Pirates slowly chipped away at the deficit over the next 10 minutes with a 23-10 run capped off by Riley’s jumper to make the score 60-55 with 4:44 left in the game.
The Pirates would not get any closer as the Owls hit timely shots and made plays to thwart ECU’s comeback attempt.
Up Next
East Carolina hosts UAB on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.