GREENVILLE — East Carolina made 15 of 27 shots from beyond the arc in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on Tuesday night, but needed a defensive stop in the closing seconds to top Old Dominion, 63-62.
Vance Jackson sank 6 of 7 from long range and led all scorers with 21 points for the Pirates (6-2).
ECU had its biggest lead at 46-36 with 16:07 left, but the Monarchs (3-5) came back to lead 62-61 on a stepback jumper from C.J. Keyser with 50 seconds remaining.
Brandon Suggs drove and scored with an assist from Tristen Newton with 34 seconds to go to give ECU the final points of the game.
The Monarchs got possession from a missed Pirate free throw with 4.3 seconds showing. After a series of timeouts, Brandon Johnson intercepted a full court inbounds pass by ODU to negate the last realistic threat by the visitors.
Pirates coach Joe Dooley had called for a defensive switch that put Johnson in position for the steal.
“We did a number of things that were really good,” Dooley said. “We did a number of things that, obviously, made it a 1-point game.”
ECU defeated the Monarchs, 73-60, in the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Nov. 19.
Suggs finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. Newton totaled 13 points and eight assists.
Keyser paced ODU with 19 points.
The Pirates are back in action on Saturday at 3 p.m. at home against Gardner-Webb, which moved to 4-3 with an 83-58 home win over North Carolina Central on Monday night.
Good 3 pt percentage, solid defense but good coaching more than anything else led to this win. The match between coaching staffs the final 2 mins was phenomenal. Checkmate Pirates