Despite a career night by Jordan Riley, the ECU men’s basketball team dropped an 83-77 decision to Rice on Wednesday night.
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Photo credit (ECU Sports Information)
Jordan Riley scored a career-high 37 points, but East Carolina fell short to Rice, 83-77, on Wednesday night inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
Demitri Gardner scored a season-high 16 points and Giovanni Emejuru added 13 points for the Pirates (6-15, 1-7 American). Riley’s 37 points marked the first time a Pirate scored 37 in a game since Jan. 2, 2014 when Akeem Richmond scored 37 against Campbell.
Jalen Smith led Rice (9-12, 3-5 American) with 21 points while Trae Broadnax added a double-double 16 points and 10 rebounds.
After scoring on the game’s opening possession, the Pirates only made one of their last seven shots going into the first media timeout and found themselves trailing 9-6. Rice went up by as much as six after Broadnax’s step back three gave the Owls a 20-14 lead with 11:24 to go in the half but the Pirates cut the Owls lead in half going into the under eight-minute media timeout after Emejuru’s inside basket.
Reid Cason tied the game at 21 on a second-chance layup with seven minutes left but Rice responded with a 7-0 run to go in front 28-21 and force a Pirate timeout at the 5:23 mark of the first half.
After Rice went up 30-21 with 4:29 remaining in the half, the Pirates went on a 12-3 run capped off by a spin and score from Riley to tie the game at 33 going into the locker room.
Three turnovers in the span of a minute by ECU allowed Rice to recapture the momentum early in the second half as the Owls held a 48-39 lead with 15:47 left in the game. The Owls’ onslaught continued as Smith drained back-to-back threes to give Rice a 60-44 lead with just under 12 minutes to go.
ECU put one last run together to pull within five points on Gardner’s three with 1:59 remaining but Rice was able to hold off the Pirates’ late surge and secure the win.
Up Next
East Carolina goes on the road to face Florida Atlantic on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.