DAYTONA BEACH — East Carolina earned fifth place in the Boardwalk Battle with a 72-55 win over Illinois-Chicago on Saturday as R.J. Felton and C.J. Walker scored 21 points each.

The Pirates went 2-1 in the 3-day event to improve to 6-1 going into a home game against North Carolina A&T (3-2) on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The Aggies visit Buffalo on Monday for a 7 p.m. tipoff before making the trip to Greenville.

ECU outscored the Flames (4-3) by a 28-13 margin over the last 12 minutes.

“Third game in three days, less than 24 hours since the second game,” said Pirates coach Mike Shwartz on the ECU radio network. “Our conditioning is not going to get fazed. We got stronger as the game went on.

“That’s where you do it — on defense. The guys have earned two days off.”

Jordan Riley had 13 points and six assists for the Pirates, who were outrebounded, 33-29, but had fewer turnovers, 7-16.

ECU had an edge in shooting, going 28 of 58 from the field (48.3 percent),. six of 17 from distance (35.3 percent) and 10 of 15 from the line (66.7 percent).

The Flames were 29 of 59 from the floor (39 percent), six of 24 from beyond the arc (25 percent) and three of seven on free throws (42.9 percent).

Ahmad Henderson II and Sasa Ciani had 10 points each for the Flames, who were averaging 91.7 points per game before being limited to a season low by ECU.