East Carolina created some hope for the remainder of the 2025-26 basketball season with a 63-59 American Conference win at North Texas on Friday.

The outcome stopped a 7-game losing streak for the Pirates, who have what appears to be a winnable game at home tonight with Rice (7 p.m., ESPNU).

The Pirates (6-14, 1-6 American) were favored by 1.5 points on Tuesday against the Owls (8-12, 2-5), who are 2-5 on the road this season.

Five of ECU’s six wins have been in the supportive confines of Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, where the Pirates are 5-6 for the season.

Looking at Rice

The Owls are coming off an 87-81 loss at home to Tulsa on Saturday in which senior guard Jalen Smith, a transfer from Southern Methodist, scored 24 points.

The Owls got back in the game after trailing, 51-31, at the half.

Another senior guard, 6-4 Trae Broadnax leads the Owls in scoring (15.3), rebounding (4.8), assists (2.9) and steals (1.4).

Recruiting objectives

Pirates coach Michael Schwartz had two objectives in recruiting in the offseason — more size and better shooting.

Led by Giovanni Emejuru, the size factor gets a checked box. The George Mason transfer is averaging 13.6 points and 9.9 rebounds. He had 16 rebounds at North Texas.

Post performers Reid Cason, Luke Davis, Eli DeLaurier and Vito Perkovic have shown potential at times.

Shooting issues

The efforts to improve shooting from last year’s team that went 19-14 overall and 10-8 in the American have come up short.

The Pirates are only hitting 26.8 percent from beyond the arc, which ranks near the bottom of Division I.

ECU was at 31.6 percent on threes last year.

The loss of guards Jayshayne Woodard, Daithi Quinn and Trevion LaBeaux to injuries for the season is certainly an extenuating circumstance.

The Pirates have continued to address the shooting issue with the midseason addition of transfer Demitri Gardner from Augusta. Gardner had 13 points at North Texas.

Corey Caulker, Isaiah Mbeng and Tybo Bailey have shown the potential to step up in the backcourt.

Life of Riley

Senior guard Jordan Riley has raised his scoring average from 14.5 points last season to 21.5 going into the Rice game.

Schwartz has played him some at the point.

The ability of others to share the scoring load will dictate how much attention opposing defenses can give to Riley, who is averaging 18.4 shots per game.

He is in his second season at ECU after averaging 4.8 points in 16.9 minutes at Georgetown in 2022 and 12.4 points for Temple in 2023.

Team player

Riley was limited to 15 points on three for 12 field goal shooting at North Texas.

He dropped nine of 10 at the line.

“Jordan is going to take a win over points one thousand out of one thousand times,” said Schwartz on the Pirate radio network.

Four-star signee

ECU has announced one signing in basketball, Dreylan Creasy-Quirindoongo of Blue Ridge School in Dyke, VA.

The 6-7, 185-pound small forward averaged 17.2 points for a 28-5 team as a junior.

A 4-star recruit, he received offers from programs including Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech.