DENTON, TX — East Carolina ended a 7-game losing with a 63-59 American Conference victory at North Texas on Friday afternoon in a game that was rescheduled from Saturday night to allow the Pirates to get home ahead of a winter storm.

ECU coach Mike Schwartz cited rebounding as the primary focus in his postgame remarks on the Pirate radio network.

ECU had a commanding 43-28 advantage on the boards.

Four players were in double-figure scoring for the Pirates, led by Jordan Riley with 15 points. Recent transfer Demitri Gardner scored 13. Corey Caulker had 11 points and six assists before fouling out. Giovanni Emejuru had 10 points and 16 rebounds.

Reid Cason had nine rebounds.

North Texas had a brief 2-0 lead but ECU erupted to go on top 26-18 with 1:21 left in the half. The Pirates had a 28-23 lead at the break.

ECU had not won since defeating Presbyterian, 74-53, at home on Dec. 17. It was the Pirates’ first road win of the season and ECU’s first triumph of the 2026 calendar year.

North Texas, favored by 9.5 points, made a run as its trapping defense created 15 turnovers.

The Mean Green pulled even at 54 on a free throw by Dylan Arnett with 1:28 remaining.

The Pirates went ahead to stay with 52 seconds left as Isaiah Mbeng assisted a reverse layup by Cason.

Riley’s 3-point play on a driving lay-up in traffic gave ECU a 59-54 advantage with 33 seconds left.

Three free throws by Je’Shawn Stevenson closed the gap to 61-59 with 19 seconds to go.

The Pirates (6-14, 1-6 American) closed out the win at the line, hitting 17 of 23 foul shots for the day, 73.9 percent.

Stevenson paced North Texas (12-8, 3-4) with 18 points.

ECU returns to action at home against Rice (8-11, 2-4) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPNU).