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 02:10 AM.
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