Pirates fend off Gardner-Webb

From electronic and staff reports
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East Carolina raced out of the gates and then sputtered along the rest of the way before wresting a difficult 62-60 victory from Gardner-Webb Tuesday night in Greenville.

The Pirates jumped out to a 20-8 lead in the first 12 minutes as the Runnin' Bulldogs missed 17 of their first 21 field goal attempts.

But a 10-point run by Gardner-Webb changed the flow of the game and set the stage for a hard-fought but often inelegant battle.

After going into intermission with a 32-27 advantage, ECU spent much of the second half fighting off the Bulldogs.

When the Pirates went cold from the floor over the game's final 9:50, G-W whittled away at ECU's lead and finally took its first lead, 55-53, on a Donta Harper dunk with 6:14 to go.

After extending the lead to 4 on a jumper by Harper at the 5:02 mark, the Bulldogs had an icy streak of their own, failing to make a bucket the rest of the way.

The teams then settled into a clumsy battle of free throws.

Senior forward Maurice Kemp's free throw with 1:01 left gave the Pirates the lead for good, but G-W had opportunities until the final buzzer to snatch a triumph on ECU's home court.

Turnovers, procedural errors and missed free throws played a part in preventing either team from salting away the win as the clock ticked down

Kemp, with a game-high 22 points, was ECU's only double-figure scorer. Junior forward Robert Sampson had 15 rebounds to help the Pirates stay even with G-W in the battle of the boards as both teams recorded 35 caroms.

Harper, a sophomore wingman, led the Bulldogs with 14 points.

ECU goes on the road Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. matchup at Massachusetts before taking a short Christmas break. After the holiday, the Pirates return to action with a home game against Norfolk State on Saturday, Dec. 29, at 5:30 p.m.

PAGE UPDATED 12/19/12 06:25 AM.

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