Tulane takes AAC opener at ECU

By Al Myatt
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GREENVILLE — Tulane's Jonathan Stark hit four of five attempts from beyond the arc as the Green Wave took a 67-59 American Athletic Conference win over East Carolina at Williams Arena in Minges Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon.

Stark scored 22 points and Louis Dabney added 19 for Tulane (10-3, 1-0 AAC).

"Stark was unbelievable today," said ECU coach Jeff Lebo. "He made bombs. He comes in the game shooting 8-of-30 from three and he made four with the shot clock expiring, like, Hail Maries. They had some guys make some shots and (Kajon) Mack comes into the game 3-of-13, makes two threes. Dabney and Stark, I thought, were terrific.

The Pirates (7-7,0-1) were ahead 24-10 before Tulane had a 25-2 run to lead 35-26 at the half.

ECU's Caleb White made three 3-pointers in a row as the Pirates closed within a point with 11:45 left in the game.

ECU still trailed by one when White drew a technical foul with 7:04 remaining that turned into a five-point possession for the Green Wave.

"Obviously a big play in the second half that didn't go our way with the technical foul on Caleb," Lebo said. "They made two foul shots after the three and we were down one at that point. That five-point play put the fourth foul on Caleb, who had just made three threes in the game. So that was one that didn't go in our favor. That call obviously changed the game."

Lebo saw the play that resulted in the technical foul on White.

"He kind of was running and popped the ball back and happened to hit the kid from Tulane who was boxing him out," Lebo said. "That was what I saw."

The Pirates were within 61-58 with 4:05 to go but missed their next six shots.

Paris Roberts-Campbell paced the Pirates with 14 points and White had 11.

ECU returns to action at South Florida on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Bulls (6-8) lost 83-49 at Southern Methodist on Wednesday.

PAGE UPDATED 01/01/15 03:31 AM.

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