CHARLOTTE — East Carolina was outscored 23-10 by Charlotte to close a 67-52 American Athletic Conference win for the 49ers on Saturday.
A disparity on the backboards contributed to the outcome on the scoreboard as the Pirates were outrebounded, 42-25.
ECU (11-12, 4-6 AAC) was without Brandon Johnson as Charlotte (14-7, 8-1) pulled away to its eighth straight league victory. Johnson had five rebounds in 23 minutes before Coach Mike Schwartz benched him due to what appeared to be a bruised hip.
Johnson is the top rebounder for the Pirates at 8.6 per game.
“We need offensive rebounding when we don’t shoot the ball well,” said Schwartz on the ECU radio network.
The Pirates made just 17 of 52 field goal attempts for 32.7 percent. ECU made four for 21 from behind the arc, 19 percent.
After going 0-for-4 at the line in the first half, the Pirates made all 14 of their free throws over the last 20 minutes.
Charlotte’s biggest lead of the first half was 24-18 after a 3-pointer by Robert Braswell with 4:37 left. The 49ers were on top, 26-24, at the break.
Jaden Walker gave ECU a 27-26 advantage with a three just 20 seconds into the second half.
Charlotte went ahead to stay at 34-31 as Igor Milicic Jr. connected from beyond the arc with 17:03 remaining, energizing Halton Arena a crowd of 8,201. It was the 49ers’ first sellout since the 2012-13 season.
R.J. Felton had 20 points for the Pirates to lead all scorers. Felton had five rebounds.
Walker added nine points.
The 49ers were led by 16 points from Lu’cye Patterson. Milicic had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Nik Graves finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
The Pirates made fewer turnovers, 8-11.
ECU has a break before returning to action at Texas-San Antonio on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU). The Roadrunners are 8-14 overall and 2-7 in league play with a game at Wichita State on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
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