GREENVILLE — Comebacks have been an exciting aspect of second-year basketball coach Mike Schwartz’s tenure at East Carolina.
For the seventh time since taking over the program, Schwartz directed the Pirates to a win after trailing by 10 points or more.
Bobby Pettiford Jr. scored 24 points as ECU came from 12 points down in the first half for a 74-66 win over UNC-Wilmington on Thursday night at Williams Arena in Minges Coliseum.
The Seahawks led 36-29 at the break but were outscored 45-30 the rest of the way.
“We guarded the 3-point line,” Schwartz said in regard to his thoughts at halftime. “They’re the No. 4 3-point shooting team in the country, shooting 44 percent, making 10 threes a game.”
UNCW was 0-for-9 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.
“They hurt us with other areas,” Schwartz said. “They started getting to the paint. They got to the free throw line. … Offensive rebounding was really hurting us.
“On the other side, our offense got stagnant versus their switching defense. … At halftime, we talked about simply continue with our 3-point defense. … Shore up our red zone defense, meaning in the paint. That’s on drives, not fouling in the paint, and we have to secure defensive rebounds. … We made an adjustment to our offense that allowed us some more off-ball movement.
“We said, ‘We’re down 7-0 right now.’ ”
A drive by Kalib Lacount gave the Pirates their first lead of the second half at 43-42 with 12:31 to go.
Lacount’s pullup jumper with 8:48 remaining put ECU ahead to stay at 51-49. Lacount had 11 points on five of 11 field goal shooting.
Brandon Johnson was four for eight on threes as he had 18 points. Johnson had 11 rebounds to help the Pirates to a 43-33 advantage on the boards.
R.J. Felton and Quentin Diboundje had seven points each.
With Ezra Ausar out, Shwartz was pleased with freshman post players Callum Richard, who made his first start and had five rebounds before fouling out in 14 minutes, and Cyr Malonga, who rebounded his missed free throw and scored to cut the Seahawks’ lead to 40-38. Malonga was up 12 on the plus-minus chart during his 11 minutes.
It was a nice bounce back from an 80-59 loss at George Mason on Saturday and an atonement for a 74-61 road loss to the Seahawks last season.
Pettiford, who transferred from Kansas, said a crowd of 5,182 made a difference.
“Coach made sure we felt it from the jump,” Pettiford said. “We watched last year’s game and that kind of added some fuel to the fire. Having a crowd and that type of environment just got us going. It felt like we were playing at an advantage, like six on five out there, especially on defense.”
Shykeim Phillips led UNCW (5-2) with 20 points. Trazarien White added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
ECU (5-3) returns to action on Monday at home against Maryland-Eastern Shore (4 p.m., ESPN+).
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