DALLAS — Southern Methodist evened its regular-season series with East Carolina by defeating the Pirates, 84-64 on Wednesday night.
ECU slipped to 8-11 overall and 2-4 in the American Athletic Conference despite 18 points and nine rebounds from sophomore Jayden Gardner.
Brandon Suggs of the Pirates made a 3-pointer to open the scoring but the Mustangs (14-4, 4-2) went ahead to stay at 6-3 on a three from Isiaha Mike with18:32 left in the first half.
Suggs also had 18 points for ECU as he and Gardner each made eight of their 16 shots from the floor.
The hosts led 40-26 at the break and outscored the Pirates 44-38 over the last 20 minutes.
Tristen Newton had 15 points, five rebounds and six assists for ECU. J.J. Miles had six points in the setback.
SMU made 29 of 53 field goal attempts for 54.7 percent, including 15 of 31 on 3-pointers (48.4 percent). The hosts dropped 11 of 15 at the line and held a 37-26 rebounding advantage.
ECU managed fewer turnovers, 10-15.
The Mustangs, who lost 71-68 to the Pirates in Greenville on Jan. 11, were led by 17 points from Tyson Jolly, 15 from Kendric Davis and 12 from Ethan Chargois.
“It was almost a flip (from the first game),” said ECU coach Joe Dooley. “We hit a ton of threes in the first game and gave them problems and now we come in here and they hit 15.”
The Pirates will be looking to end a 3-game losing streak as they return home to meet Tulane (10-8, 2-4) on Saturday at 6 p.m.
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