White, Barkley fuel Pirates in opener

Staff Report
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GREENVILLE — East Carolina won its season opening basketball game over Grambling State 61-53 on Friday night at Williams Arena in Minges Coliseum as Caleb White scored 21 points.

The outcome provided Pirates coach Jeff Lebo with his 299th career victory.

"I thought the game was not a very good offensive display of shooting the basketball, by really either team, but we're lucky to win that game shooting 31 percent, but we found a way to gut it out," Lebo said. "I thought we did some good things coming down the stretch."

Freshman Kentrell Barkley had eight points and 11 rebounds in 27 minutes.

"Kentrell Barkley, I thought was terrific in the game," Lebo said. "He made some big plays for us. We really struggled."

ECU's B.J. Tyson, selected to the American Athletic Conference All-Freshman team last season, went 0-for-9 from the field.

"B.J. really struggled," Lebo said. "He's going to have pressure on himself every night I think, to be able to play well because we're going to need some points and some consistency out of him. He's really had a tough game, but thank God there's a game on Monday. Hopefully, he'll play better.

"Caleb was terrific. He was efficient as he always is – 21 points. The difference in the game was us being able to get to the free throw line, that was a big difference. To give them credit, I thought (Michael) Bethea was terrific shooting the basketball; didn't know anything about him; six threes and he made some big, timely ones, but give credit to my guys. The game got tight late, and we made some plays, and kind of got a little cushion there with three minutes to go in the game."

The Pirates made 29 of 42 free throws.

Bethea had 18 points, hitting six of 11 from beyond the arc. His three with 9:18 left gave the visitors their last lead at 41-40.

Kanu Aja scored in the paint with 8:31 remaining to give ECU the lead for keeps at 42-41. That sparked a decisive 10-0 run for the Pirates.

Tyson helped hold the Tigers off from the foul line where he made all six of his attempts. Tyson also claimed six rebounds as ECU held a 44-32 advantage on the boards.

White grabbed five rebounds. Tyson had a team-high four assists.

Lance Tejada had seven points and Michel Nzege added six for ECU.

Mike Zangari had seven points and five rebounds for the Pirates, who host Charlotte on Monday at 7 p.m.

PAGE UPDATED 11/14/15 01:19 PM.

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