Jordan Riley reached a milestone as the ECU men’s basketball team beat UTSA on Wednesday at Minges Coliseum.
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Photo credit: Jordan Riley (ECU Sports Information)
Jordan Riley scored a game-high 19 points and Isaiah Mbeng had an all-around game, including a career-high 18 points as East Carolina defeated UTSA, 88-72, on Wednesday night inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
Riley eclipsed 1,000 career points at ECU in the win.
Mbeng added eight rebounds and six assists for the Pirates (8-16, 3-8 American) who had five players in double figures in a game for the first time this season. Demitri Gardner scored in double figures for his seventh straight game with 15 points, Eli DeLaurier scored a career-high 13 points and Giovanni Emejuru recorded his 12th double-double of the year with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Daniel Akitoby led UTSA (4-20, 0-12 American) with 16 points.
After UTSA jumped out to an early 9-6 lead, the Pirates quickly gained the lead with a 6-0 spurt to go in front 12-9 at the 14:37 mark of the first half. ECU eventually increased its lead to double figures for good on DeLaurier’s jumper at the 8:44 mark to make the score 26-16.
The Pirates would take a 46-31 lead going into the half after Gardner sank a triple right before the buzzer, tying the largest halftime lead ECU has had in a game this season.
Riley sank two free throws at the 17:22 mark of the second half to become the 35th Pirate to reach 1,000 points in an ECU jersey and just the fourth to do so in a two-season span, joining Oliver Mack, Blue Edwards and Jayden Gardner.
ECU cruised in the second half as the Roadrunners would get no closer than 11 and the Pirates picked up their first conference win of the year.
Up Next
East Carolina travels to Rice for a Saturday matchup at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+.